The Tribulation of Anakin Skywalker
by Yoda1976
Summary: Vader saves his son from the Death Star only to face an uncertain future.
1. He is my Father

Vader watched as Palpatine used Sith Lightning on his son. _His son. _"Now, young Skywalker, you will die," the Emperor said, the man who'd lied countless times to him, and he heard Luke's screams. It was almost like he was trying to say something again through the pain, but the Emperor's evil laughter cut through anything he might have interpreted from Luke's screams.

He waited, probably too long, for the Emperor to be totally engrossed in what he was doing, so that he could take advantage of the distraction and kill him. The Emperor paused in throwing Sith Lightning, and Anakin Skywalker seized the chance to pick up the Emperor, using his massive height to get him high enough to move him over the abyss. Dropping the Sith over the side of the railing, he was pleased that the insulation that he'd installed in the suit had deflected the majority of the bolts the Emperor had tried to throw at him.

He turned to his son, and Luke was curled into a ball. He reached out through the Force, and found that Luke's body was going into shock from the sustained electrocution. He quickly checked his son for injuries, the experience of the Clone Wars helping for once. He quickly determined that Luke hadn't broken any bones, or injured his neck or spine in the convulsions caused by the Force Lightning. However, as Anakin knew from personal experience, he would be in severe pain for at least several days, but he would live, provided that he got proper medical treatment. He picked his son up, cradling him in his arms, and headed for the shuttles through the blaring alarms of the ship going down. He had no thought other than getting out as quickly as possible to help Luke. He used the Force—not the dark side, or even the light side, just the Force, in it's rawest form, one that only someone with the immense power he had once carried could use—to stave off his own body's shut-down response to having abandoned the dark side as it exacted it's toll on him. He had precious little energy to siphon off that activity to stabilize Luke's life force, but it was enough.

He entered a shuttle that had been modified to his specifications, one that had the life support systems he would need soon. He took off through the shields designed for the purpose, and he began searching the comm channels for their medical frequency. It took precious minutes, though he was headed in the general direction of the Rebel Fleet. He flipped a switch, which sent an auto-distress signal out for a medical emergency, and, once he found the proper ship, _Mercy_, he headed toward it. He got an auto signal back from the ship as to where he should land, and once he was in range, he was hailed. He wasn't sure how to respond. He wasn't in much better shape than Luke, but he doubted the Rebels would take him at his word. He tapped out a text response, rather than an auditory one. 'Cmdr Skwkr, electrical shock.'

They tried for verbal conformation again, but he wasn't about to give them anything that might prevent them from helping his son. He guided the ship in perfectly, and there was a medical team waiting with a grav-stretcher. He sighed in relief, and as the shuttle landed, he picked his son up, concerned at the way Luke was shivering, his consciousness coming and going. "Everything will be fine, son," he told Luke gently.

"They don't know," he said through the chattering of his teeth. "Only Leia."

"Did you want me to keep it that way?"

"Leia…will know better what to do; ask her," Luke said, and then his consciousness faded completely. He pressed the button to lower the ramp, and then walked down it, carrying Luke's unconscious form. He heard several people gasp and sensed the weapons that had been quickly trained on him. The medical team looked grimly at the two of them as he laid his son gently on the grav-stretcher. He stepped back and they swarmed around his son, confirming his initial assessment, and he swayed on his feet, releasing the Force from the stranglehold he'd had on it, then he collapsed and faded from consciousness himself.

* * *

"He's down, too!" Helena Eserina said, cursing the fact that Vader, or whoever was doing a damn good impression of Vader, hadn't said anything about both of them being hurt. She got on her wrist com—something only used by emergency crews, usually. "Get me another grav-stretcher to Bay 8," she snapped, then turned back to her original patient. "Terry, Orik, you two get Skywalker down to Sick Bay 3, he's stable enough. The rest of you, come help me," she said, and they started dismantling Vader's mask.

He was so horrifically scarred that she couldn't estimate his age. She put a mask on him, hooked up to an oxygen tank, and took a pulse at his neck. It was thready and weak, and he was showing the early signs of shock. "Shavvit, he's in shock, too, get an IV started, saline and 5% tetraidine." she said, then depressed the recorder button on her com.

"Left arm is artificial, checking right, it's artificial too," the med-tech said, and checked Anakin's upper legs, "Finally, real flesh…IV started, standard saline and 5% tetraidine."

"No pupil dilation, breathing shallow, pulse weak," Helena recorded.

By the time she was able to make the assessment, the second grav-stretcher arrived, and they lifted him to it. "Patient is Human, male, age between 35 and 60, due to extensive scaring unable to estimate better. Patient is wearing a class three life support module, has had all limbs replaced with cybernetics, currently unknown if voluntary or due to amputation," she finished her preliminary evaluation as they were heading down to Sick Bay 3.

It was several hours later that she was finally able to take a moment to think, and she did so leaned against a wall outside the main triage center. Commander Skywalker was in the capable hands of Dr. Cinglet, a blue-skinned Mon Calamari, and as such, she had turned her full attention to Vader. The first thing she did was start removing his armor; she was careful as she knew his life support module was intrinsically tied to his body. What she found in her examination appalled her. The life support system wasn't tied directly into his respiratory system like she'd though it was, but it _was _tied into his body in some pretty queer ways, like the needles that punctured just deep enough to cause pain throughout the whole suit.

There was some sort of drug that was being fed him constantly through some of those needles, but unless there was a _damn_ good reason, and she couldn't think of one, even if it was a piss-poor one, she was going to tear someone from ass to crown for doing what they'd done to him. The mask that provided the seal for his breathing equipment—she'd luckily had him on straight oxygen by the time she realized his capacity to breathe on his own was pretty much non-existent—had needles that maintained its position on his face, as well as allowing for the tight seal needed. Some parts of his suit were pretty advanced. His temperature regulation system looked to be first class. His hyperbaric sealing system seemed barbaric in comparison, and it made her nauseous to think that he'd been in that thing—assuming that it was the same "Darth Vader" as had been at the Emperor's side at the beginning of the Empire—for nearly a quarter of a century.

There were secondary functions embedded within the suit. He had an external pacemaker, though she could not really see the need for it, and the monitoring of his vital systems was extensive. His helmet provided an impressive array of data, though how he sorted through all of it, she didn't know. Examining his ears showed that whatever had caused his scarring had gotten those as well. She couldn't have personally rebuilt them, but she knew someone she thought could, even after Force-knew-how-long it had gone without repair. His retinas showed some damage, and his corneas, but not to the extent of requiring the specially tinted goggling that was present in his suit. It was when they had flipped him over and started taking the suit off his back that she'd nearly lost control over her temper. He had had spinal surgery, that much was clear, but the leads running out of the back of his neck into the suit sickened her. Even if his spine had been severed, there were ways to repair it that didn't require something so…heinous. He must have been in constant pain from the electrical impulse stimulators that had been imbedded within the armor at every point at which he had skin touching the suit.

She'd taken one look at the really horrid synth-skin patch job that someone had done, and had it removed immediately. He had enough skin to graft over the two small patches where his real skin didn't meet. It had to have been horridly uncomfortable. The more she thought about it, the more she was convinced that the suit was designed for his _dis_comfort, rather than to aid his quality of life and be as comfortable as possible.

Measurements taken after she eyeballed things when they had tried to bend his legs in what should have been a natural position told another story of malignant cruelty. She estimated his proper height from his bone structure to be not more than 1.9 meters, more likely closer to 1.8 meters, but she would have to run it past an anthropologist to be sure. As he had been…constructed—there really was no other word for it—he was a smidge over 2 meters. Someone had literally stuffed an additional six or more centimeters to his legs, at least, and his helmet made up an additional four or five. The only possible reason that she could think of, and it galled her to even consider it, was that the Emperor wanted him to be more intimidating, and the additional height was the first way to accomplish that. Every piece of the suit, whether it was designed for either armor or life support, was either horribly inferior, or supremely superior, and all of it was done with an eye toward intimidation. The contrast in technology levels drew on her most basic instincts to protect her patient, and she had been given this man in the most deplorable state of health imaginable, but, she hoped, if he cooperated, she could rehabilitate him to where he could do most things on his own, perhaps even breathe.

"Ma'am?" one of the lab techs came up to her.

"Yes?" she asked, focusing on him, standing up straight.

"I've finished the analysis on that chemical that you wanted."

She took the sheet of flimsiplast that he handed her, and by the time that she was done reading it, it was shaking so hard she could barely do so. "Thank you," she said curtly to the young man, and he nodded and left. She couldn't tell exactly what the chemicals were supposed to do by their make-up, but they weren't there to assist him in his pain management, or to enable his body to better function. They were vile poisons of the worst kind, and, as she noted some of the chemicals, she wondered if it wasn't addictive, as well.

Her duty nurse walked by, and she snagged her arm. "Watch Lord Vader for signs of withdrawal, will you?"

"Ma'am?"

"I just got a report back from a chemical he was being injected with on a constant drip in his suit," she said, showing her the flimsi.

"Hmmm," Estelle said as she studied the flimsi.

"Deathsticks don't really look too different from this," she said, and pointed, "_This_ makes me wonder if it's got addictive properties."

"I'll watch him, Ma'am. It's not like I wouldn't be watching him like a hawk anyway."

She smiled, tiredly, but for the first time in hours, and double-checked on her patient. She checked the other bed, and found that Luke Skywalker, Hero of Yavin, was already snugly installed.

She'd put them in the same room with the thought that if Vader had brought Skywalker to them, then even if he woke with no one there, it wasn't likely that he would kill their biggest hero. She couldn't afford the space to put Vader in a separate room, no matter how much she wanted to.

She pushed off the wall she was leaning against as she considered her toughest case, and, medical emergencies having slacked off for the moment, she decided she'd better run this up the line. "Get me Command," she said to the com tech at what amounted to the nurse's station in their more permanent wards.

"Ma'am," he said, and proceeded to key up the Command ship.

"Command," said General Tyr Taskeen.

"General," she said, and he looked a bit startled to see her. She supposed it was only natural.

"What can I do for you, Doctor Eserina?"

"I wanted to report the status of two of my patients to you."

"Only two?"

"They, I think, will be of particular interest to you. An imperial shuttle landed a few hours ago after squawking a med-distress. We got no audio conformation from them, but we let them land after a textual response stating that Commander Skywalker was aboard and injured."

"Was he?"

"Yes. He's stable, but he hasn't regained consciousness. It will probably be several days before he does; he looks like hell," she sighed, half her message delivered. "I assume from the nature of Commander Skywalker's injuries, that he was not piloting the shuttle, the other person with him was."

"And who was that?"

"Lord Vader."

"And where is Lord Vader now?"

"In a bed right beside Commander Skywalker. He collapsed almost as soon as the two of them got off the shuttle, and he's in better shape than Commander Skywalker, but not by much. I wanted to know what you wanted me to do with him, sir."

He rolled his eyes, and muttered under his breath. "Is _he_ conscious?"

"No, sir, and I don't expect him to be for at least 24 hours, though some of the reports I've had about Vader say he's some sort of Sorcerer, able to do things that no mere mortal could conceive of. He does seem to be stabilizing faster than I would have thought possible, considering how delicate his health in general is."

"Really?"

She shook her head. "I'm surprised he's alive, considering. I'll send over a medical evaluation when I have time to write one."

"Let me know if his condition changes, and write me that report when you have a minute. The ground teams are due back any time, and there's a conference scheduled of the Leadership, at 0900 tomorrow morning. You don't think you could get me that report by then?"

"Maybe," she said, then one of the hospital ship's many alarms went off. "We've got incoming. I'll let you know when I know more."

"Thank you, Command out," he said, and she shut the comm off, heading for the docking bay.

* * *

Leia was in the middle of one round of dance too many as the Ewoks celebrated their victory well into the evening. She saw a non-participant, and knew somehow that he was here to talk to her. She swung out of the dance and faced him. He was one of their youngest recruits. "Ma'am, a comm message for you from Command."

She nodded. They might be explaining the odd nagging feeling that everything wasn't quite right with her brother.

She followed him to the small ship where the com had come in. Crix Madine was waiting for her. "What can I do for you?"

"There's no easy way to say this," he said nervously, "Luke's pretty bad off, the Doc on the _Mercy_ doesn't think he's going to wake up for a few days. I thought you would want to know."

"Thank you, General," she said. "I want to go see him."

"We will have a briefing at 0900 tomorrow."

"General Solo and I will be there."

"Well, then if you are going to check on Commander Skywalker at all before then, you'd better get a move on," he said. "Command out."

She sighed as he shut his comm, and went back to collect her…Han.

They boarded the _Falcon _in record time, and she couldn't help but smile as Han tried not to show how worried he had really been about Luke. He didn't see it though. She made sure of that.

* * *

Helena watched the Princess of Alderaan and General Solo make their way toward her. "Can I help you?"

"I am here to see Commander Skywalker."

"I'm afraid that I can't allow that."

"Why not?"

"He will not be authorized to have visitors until he wakes, unless it's family."

"If you check his file, he's orphaned. We're then closest he's got to family," Solo said.

"We are keeping a prisoner in his room as well, and I don't want you disturbing him. He'll be a couple of days before he's fit for questioning, and it will be months before I can, in good conscience, release him from a medical facility."

Princess Organa shuddered. She'd seen what it took to keep someone cooped up in a medical facility for _months_. "We just want to see Luke," she agreed.

"He came in with severe electrical shock; don't know much more than that, I didn't actually triage him. I took on a bit harder case."

"Can we see him or not?"

"He's resting, and unconscious from his injuries. I think it might be better for you if you waited until he was a little better."

"It doesn't matter. He was going up against Vader and the Emperor the last time I saw him. I need to see that he's alive," she said, "With my own eyes."

Helena raised an eyebrow. "Fighting against Vader? It was Vader who brought him here."

Princess Organa closed her eyes for a moment. "I see. May we see Luke now?"

Helena shook her head. The Princess was a stubborn one. "Alright," she capitulated. "Fifteen minutes."

"Thank you."

* * *

Leia walked into the tomb-like room the hum of the machines blurring with the quiet, incessant beeping and the sound of air moving rhythmically through tubes. Han was behind her, silent as he waited for her to find her courage. The partitions were all closed in the small room, and there were no windows—they were in an interior room of the ship. She took a breath, not liking the antiseptic smell that permeated the room. It was going to do no good to her to wait here, trying to build her courage up, so she stepped up to the far partition, opening it. Her brother was the one in the bed, and she sighed in relief.

She walked over to him, and sat on the small stool by his bed. He stirred, aware of her presence through the Force, even in his unconscious state, probably. "Shhh," she told him, running her fingers through his messy hair. "You did good, Luke. You saved him. Don't worry about what's going on out here, just concentrate on getting better."

He shuddered, and his heart rated dropped slightly, as he, apparently, took her advice and fell into a deeper sleep. She sat with him for a while longer, assuring herself that he was, indeed going to be fine. A fine prickling awareness started along her spine that Vader was just beyond the curtain behind her. She didn't know how she knew that, but she did. The Force, probably, she mused as she stroked her brother's hair. "Stay with him," she said to Han, and he looked confused.

She patted Luke's hand one last time, and turned to face the curtain that separated her from her father, and her biggest enemy, now that the Emperor was dead. Han put a hand on her shoulder, and she patted it. She was absolutely certain that the Emperor's dark presence had been blotted from the face of the galaxy, even though neither of the two who would really be in a place to know could tell her. "You aren't supposed to disturb whoever that is."

"I won't disturb him," she said. Deciding that it would be beneath her dignity to hide from Vader, she moved the curtain aside, and was shocked by his appearance. Scars covered the parts of his body that she could see, except his face—not that she could see much of that, with the oxygen mask covering it—but he was deathly white and she wished now she hadn't come see him.

He turned his head toward her, lazily, and she squared her shoulders, and went and sat beside him. She didn't even know why she was there, now that she was, and she was uncomfortable. His body was covered to his chin, unlike her brother, who had both of his arms out. Perhaps Vader got colder more easily. She didn't know how she felt about him, and she wasn't even sure now if , that what Luke had set out to do had been accomplished. Had Luke saved Vader, or had Vader just come here out of desperation with nowhere else to go, and he was still evil, intending to take Luke and turn him to the darkness?

"No," she heard, it was a raspy whisper, and she looked at Vader's now-open eyes. She was surprised to find that they were the same color as Luke's.

"No, what?" she asked him with some trepidation.

"No, you weren't wrong to tell Luke that he saved me. He did."

She swallowed hard. "I'm afraid," she said finally.

He closed his eyes, turning his face from her, "I'm sorry. Nothing can ever make up for the things I did to you," he said, sorrow weighting down each of his words. "It is enough that you came to see me."

She swallowed, trying to reconcile the man in front of her with the awful suit that had encased him. The moment of awareness passed, and he slid back into slumber, for which she was grateful. She looked down, not knowing where her feelings were, but she decided it didn't matter just now, and she went back to see Luke.

"I'll be back in a while, Luke. I love you," she told him with a kiss on his forehead, and Han followed her out to the corridor, and then to the _Falcon_.

* * *

"We have who?" Mon Mothma said to Crix Madine, disbelief clear in her voice.

"We have Darth Vader aboard the _Mercy_. Apparently Commander Skywalker had been injured on the Death Star and Vader got him off the station before we destroyed it," Madine said.

"Is he in a cell?" she asked, then mentally kicked herself. There _weren't_ cells aboard the _Mercy._

"No, he too, apparently, suffered some injuries, or his suit suffered a mechanical failure. Doctor Eserina isn't sure what took him down, but she's convinced that he's very lucky to be alive. I'll spare you her reports details, it made ME sick and I didn't understand half of it, but suffice it that he was being pumped up on some kind of drug that in addition to its addictive properties, had to inflame his entire nervous system, among other things. She says what I read was just a preliminary report. If I know Helena, though, she's ready to find whoever did this to him and rip them several new orifices."

"That bad? To think we lived in fear of that man for so long."

"With reason, Madam President, with reason. However unless he states differently I'm prepared to assume he is defecting."

"Very well, General. I will list his provisional status as that until we can question him," she said, sighing as she typed that into her datapad. "When will that be?"

"Helena's report said that he'd be awake—barely before Commander Skywalker—in a couple of days, provided that the withdrawal symptoms she thinks are going to hit him don't knock him back down before that."

They had had a few people with addictions who had been required to kick their habits before they were accepted to the Alliance, and she knew how long it took when they knew the properties of the substance to which someone was addicted. Force only knew how long it would take for this, when Vader had been on it for possibly twenty-some-odd years. "So it may be weeks before we can properly question him."

Crix made a gesture of acquiescence, and shrugged. "I doubt it is going to matter all that much. He is here, so he can't wreck havoc on our people any more. Is that not enough?"

"I suppose it's going to have to be," she said, then sighed. "Let me know when you get another report on Doctor Eserina's more interesting patients."

"Will do," he said, and he left to attend other duties.

* * *

The discussion aboard the _Falcon_ as they headed from the _Mercy _to the _Home One_ was tense. "What was that about?" Han asked Leia after they had gotten underway, and he didn't have any controls to fiddle with.

She sighed. "What was what about?" she asked, trying to delay the inevitable.

"You know very well what. Why did you go see that other person in Luke's room? It's not like you to lie like that."

"Because I needed to."

"Ok, let's try a different tactic. Who was it?"

"Vader," she said very quietly.

"Vader!" Han said, reaching out to the controls.

"What are you doing?" Leia asked.

"Going back to give that doctor a piece of my mind, how could she put that monster in the same room with Luke!"

Leia was touched by Han's obvious concern over Luke, "Han, its alright, Luke will want him there," she said and had to stifle a chuckle when he looked at her like she'd just grew a full Wookiee pelt before him.

"Why would Luke want the Prince of Pain with him?"

"Because he's Luke's father," she said quietly, and waited for the full implication of the words to hit her beloved. She didn't have to wait long.

"Vader is Luke's father, and you are Luke's sister…any chance you were adopted?" he said, causing her to thump his shoulder.

"Hey, what was that…oh…sorry, that was in bad taste I guess."

"That would be one way to describe it, but I forgive you, its not every day someone finds out they are in love with Vader's little girl," she said, "Hell, it's not everyday someone finds out that they are the little girl in question."

"He told you the night before he left, didn't he?" Han asked.

"Yes, he did."

"You took it well."

"What are you talking about? I was bawling like a baby."

"Exactly, if it had been me, I'd have tied Luke back onto the spit the furballs brought us in on." She chuckled.

"What are you wanting to do about it?" he asked, getting serious.

"I don't know…that depends on what they both say happened over there."

"Fair enough, do you think he deserves a second chance?"

"You got one, didn't you?"

"True, but there's a bit of difference between spice smuggling and mass murder."

"True enough, putting things back together would be hard enough without this. There's going to be many who are going to want to see him hang."

"That could be a problem." Han said.

"It could, but hopefully it won't." Then they were approaching _Home __One__._

"_Home One_, this is the _Falcon_, requesting clearance to land in Hanger one."

The com crackled with static as the ship answered their request. "_Falcon, _this is _Home One_, Hanger One is standing by to receive you."

"Thank you, _Home One_, estimate docking complete in two minutes."

"Thank you, _Falcon_, over and out."

She watched quietly as he took the ship in and settled it into the dock, and they headed for the meeting room with only just enough time to make it to the 0900 meeting.

* * *

Han walked behind Leia as they headed to the meeting room. He was concerned for her, because of all the hits her world had taken in the last day. She was strong, stronger than most people, and as strong as she strived to appear to the rest of the Alliance, but Vader's appearance in their midst had shaken her. Luke's injuries hadn't helped anything, and she was still healing from a blaster bolt to her stomach. Yeah, bacta patches made it look healed pretty quick, but he knew it took a few day's for the body's alarm system to stop going off from personal experience.

Crix Madine was coming at them from the opposite direction, and he looked haggard. He usually ran the ship's night watch, so he's been coordinating the after-battle cleanup for the last eight or so hours. Han felt sorry for the man. "Thank you for telling me about Luke."

"It was nothing. I know how much you care for him. He's pretty important to the Alliance, too."

She looked down, probably hiding a grin, if he knew her as well as he thought he did. "He will be fine, sir. He knows that we're pulling for him, and he needs that."

"Come on, we're probably holding everyone up," he said, and they entered into the briefing room. There were a couple of people absent, who would normally have been there, like Luke, but other than that, everyone had assembled. He found his seat, and picked up the agenda that was laying in front of him. Mon Mothma got up and stood behind the podium. "Thank you, ladies and gentlemen for coming today. I know that you all have been busy trying to put the Fleet back together, but it's important to keep coordinated. First, I'm going to hand the floor over to General Solo, to talk about ground operations."

He was finally getting accustomed to the idea that he had to give speeches. He didn't like it, nor did he feel he had to. He stood up and began, "We arrived in system approximately seven hours after leaving the fleet…" He continued talking about the various events of the strike team's actions on the Endor moon. He left nothing out and the command staff had few questions. He really felt the whole thing was unnecessary; they had his written report, what more did they want? Yet, he endured, as torture went it wasn't too bad. He sat back down, relieved that it was over. He'd answered far more questions than he had thought he was going to have to, but now it was Leia's turn. She was supposed to talk about the coordination efforts of the _Mercy_ and getting the wounded patched up. She had received a brief from Helena Eserina as they had left, since the doctor didn't think she could, in good conscience, leave her patients for that long. Leia had probably only barely had enough time to read over the reports and put together her thoughts, but she'd been making speeches practically since she could walk, and doing a good job of it as well.

"Thank you, Madam President," she said to Mon Mothma as the later sat down in one of the chairs behind the podium.

"As you all know, probably, we've lost a number of ships in the battle yesterday, including the _Redemption, _our primary medical frigate, which leaves only the _Mercy_ to deal with the wounded. The ship seems to be doing an admirable job of taking care of those wounded, but if there is space available for walking wounded on your ships, Doctor Eserina wanted me to ask that you take whoever you could aboard to relieve her ship's crowding. If you have wounded that need extra attention, she will still take them, but if you can, please limit that to the most seriously injured. Among the wounded on the ship is Commander Skywalker, but he is expected to make a full recovery, though he was very seriously injured."

"I heard that Darth Vader is there as well," one of the junior officers said.

She looked down, ostensibly at her notes, but he knew she was composing herself to respond. "Yes, that is true."

"Are we keeping him prisoner?"

She thought for a moment, then shook her head. "That is not going to be necessary. He will cooperate with our efforts to dismantle the Empire."

General Madine spoke up then, "So he's awake?"

She shook her head again, "He woke briefly, and I spoke to him, but I believe it was only because of the urgent desire to express his intentions."

"He told you that he's defecting?" Madine pressed.

"Not in so many words, General, but I believe that is his intention at this point, if he can be said to have one, being as grievously injured as Luke was," she said, and then went back to talking about the situation with the wounded as they moved away from the topic of Vader, her father.


	2. Accusation

**AN: **

**Whateveritis: That is one of the things I don't like about many of the "Vader Lives" fics. I think you'll like how I'm handleing this aspect.**

**I love dance: Thank you.**

**Alien Roxi: Here you go! ;)**

**Jedi Karma: You got it!**

Mon Mothma was looking over the latest reports on the Battle of Endor. It would soon be time to figure out where to go now. The Emperor was probably dead, but that had yet to be confirmed with Commander Skywalker and Darth Vader still unconscious. She sighed. They'd have to assign a JAG officer for him soon, but she really wanted to wait until he'd healed some.

A part of her still wasn't convinced this day had finally arrived and was fearful that their report would be that the Emperor escaped. She closed her eyes and thought of all the friends and comrades that had given their lives so that this day might come. She sighed and turned back to her datawork. She had barely gotten started when the intercom chimed. She let out a mild curse and pressed the intercom button.

"Yes, Thadius?"

"Threkin Horm is here to see you."

She sighed; it could be worse, but it could be better, like no one having interrupted. One thing she could do, at least, was to listen to what he wanted and get it over with. At least whatever he wanted wouldn't give her ulcers; the Alderaan Survivors Committee didn't usually have…demanding requests.

"Send him in."

Threkin Horm entered her office in his repulsorlift chair. Mon Mothma was sure she was imagining things, but he'd seemed to have put on even more weight since she had seen him just before the battle. His thinning reddish brown hair was plastered to his skull by sweat, a result of the high humidity maintained on _Home One_ in deference to the Mon Cal crew. He seemed…anxious. She motioned for him to sit as she put her datapad away.

"What can I do for the Survivors of Alderaan today, Mister Horm?" Mon Mothma, she refused to use his given title. In her opinion it was presumptuous for him to claim the title of President when commissioner or Speaker would've done just as well and avoided confusion. Her annoyance was tripled when she thought about how he'd maneuvered the Survivors Council into adopting it, in spite of Mon Mothma being named President of the Alliance to Restore the Republic a scant six months before the destruction of Alderaan. She revised her original assessment of this meeting; it WAS going to give her an ulcer.

"First you can confirm a rumor that I've heard, Madame President," Horm started, his voice was nasal and it sounded like he was coming down with a cold, it had the effect of making his voice, which on the best of days was annoying, nearly unbearable to listen to and Mon Mothma fought the urge to shudder as he spoke.

"And what rumor is that?" she replied, keeping her voice pleasant.

"That Commander Skywalker has taken Darth Vader prisoner."

It took all of Mon Mothma's considerable willpower and political experience not to sigh at that statement, it wasn't a secret, but it also hadn't been made public knowledge yet and Mothma had hoped that she'd have at least a day or two before having to deal with his presence in the fleet in public.

"It is true that Darth Vader is a patient on board the _Mercy_, Mr. Horm. However he came of his own volition and in the process probably saved Commander Skywalker's life in doing so. It is the position of this Office that he is to be treated as a defector until and unless he proves otherwise."

"WHAT! You can't be serious!" Horm exploded, spittle escaping his mouth.

"I most certainly am serious. He is being treated for his injuries as we speak."

"That is unacceptable! I came here to verify that he was in custody and to find out when his trial would be and now I hear that he's being welcomed as a HERO! This is outrageous and an insult to all of Alderaan's dead!"

"Oh please, Mr. Horm. How many defectors did we take in during the past year alone, men who, while acting under orders did horrible things?"

"This is completely different and you know it."

"I don't see how. He can be a great help to us in securing the rest of the Galaxy from the Imperial military. Furthermore we don't know yet that the Emperor didn't escape the destruction of the Death Star."

"Justice can only be served by ensuring that Darth Vader cannot hurt anyone else." Threkin Horm shouted.

"If he wants to defect we are going to give him that chance. Justice demands it."

"You're insane. He's a MONSTER! He destroyed my HOME!"

Mon Mothma sighed, and a part of her sympathized with him, but he was wrong.

"No, he was present, but by Princess Leia's own testimony after the Destruction of Alderaan, it was Governor Tarkin in command of the Death Star and Tarkin that gave the order and Tarkin that was responsible for Alderaan's destruction, not Darth Vader."

"This is ridiculous, I shouldn't have to fight so hard to get a MASS MURDERER executed!"

"There's the problem, Mr. Horm. You've let your emotions run away with you on this. Darth Vader will not be tried for anything, until and unless he states through words or actions that he is not, in fact, defecting. He will have all the protections of a defecting officer, including protection from prosecution for crimes committed on the orders of his chain of command."

"He HAS no chain of command! He was a law onto himself and raped the galaxy and murdered my HOME!"

Mon Mothma sighed, and rubbed the bridge of her nose; she was starting to get a headache. Her sympathy for his feelings was quickly being eroded by his stubbornness.

"We've been over that. No my decision stands."

"If you don't turn him over for trial I will have your job," he said, rage seething from him.

"Go ahead and try. You might have noticed that we have won our greatest victory of this war under my watch. I think my job is safe."

"I'll divide the Alliance."

Mon Mothma couldn't quite keep the shock from her face. "You wouldn't, you couldn't! Not after all we've been through!"

"I will, I can. There will be enough that want to see Vader burn for his crimes; it will cripple the Alliance. You know I am right about that," he said, his tone serious and all expression leeched from his face.

She swallowed, thinking. "Very well, you win this round. However, this will NOT be a binjinphant court. I insist on a fair and legal proceedings."

"Very well, we'll have all the data in their correct columns before we execute him," he said with an ugly smile that reminded Mon Mothma of a nexu's.

Once she was sure he was gone, and she'd settled her own feelings. She pressed the button on her comm. "Get me the JAG office."

* * *

Luke opened his eyes, but it took _effort_, and he wasn't ready for more than that. He was lying in a bed of some sort, and the cacophony that assaulted his ears told him that he was in a hospital bed. He sighed. He hated being in a hospital bed. That meant that he'd done something incredibly stupid.

He sighed, and wondered exactly what he'd done this time. His memories were slightly scrambled and a little hazy. He was disappointed that he seemed to be alone, but he wasn't really in a position to care right at that moment, and it did give him time to sort himself out. He began to get uncomfortable, and so he moved, curling up on his left side instead of lying flat on his back. He viewed his room with a bit of detachment. The curtains, which would be closed most of the time, were open now, but there was still no one in the room other than the being in the bed next to him.

A memory brushed the surface of his mind. "She was very beautiful. Kind, but...sad." He held it down, pinning it for reference. There had been a battle before, and he was talking to his sister after the many adventures of that day…whatever day that was.

He'd told her. That had been when he'd told her that they were twins. He groaned, because of the pain that conversation had brought her, something he'd been acutely aware of, though he'd pushed it aside in favor of duty.

He was aware then, of a comforting presence, whispering into his mind that it was all right; Leia was strong and had dealt with the fact that they were siblings. He sighed, believing it, for the moment, at least, and he went back to trying to organize his mental closet.

He had told her because…he was going to confront his father, their father, to try to get him to turn back to the light, and become Anakin Skywalker once again. He tracked that memory down as well: the conflict within his father as they met, and went to the Death Star, and the elevator ride to meet the Emperor.

His memories were shattered after that, fragments coming to him: pain, rage, strength, calm, fear, and betrayal. That was the most bitter of what he could glean, and he wondered. Did he succeed in turning his father from the dark side, or had he been forced to kill him?

The Emperor was dead. That wasn't an issue, and he wasn't quite sure how he was bone-deep certain that the Emperor was not a problem that he would have to confront again.

"Luke," a weak raspy voice came to him from across the room, and he concluded that the only person who could have said it was the being in the other bed.

"What?" he asked, not moving, not ready for anything so strenuous.

"It's good to see you awake."

"I feel like bantha poodoo. I think I'd much rather still be unconscious, thank you very much."

A rumbling wheezing sound followed. He was uncertain as to how to interpret that but the voice retained its humor when the other person spoke. "All-in-all, I would rather be unconscious as well, but the Force does not always grant us what we wish, only what we need."

With a sharp intake of breath, Luke realized that whoever was in that bed must be Force-sensitive. He felt, weakly, out from himself and found a strong, resonating signature, that he almost recognized, but it had changed so drastically since the last time that he'd felt it, that he wasn't absolutely certain. "Father?" he asked hesitantly.

"What?"

"Just checking," Luke said, and the rumbling wheezing sound followed again, but Luke knew what it was this time, and he felt…lighthearted, like the entire galaxy had been lifted from his shoulders, because he heard his father laughing. "How long have you been awake?"

"Oh, an hour or so. I've been watching you sleep."

"That must have been fascinating," he said sarcastically.

"Actually, yes. I've been awake off and on since we've been here."

"Where is here?"

"A medical frigate—the _Mercy_, I believe."  
"How long have I been out?"

"I believe about 24 hours."

Luke nodded, though his father couldn't really see him all that well. "Anything interesting happen while I was snoozing?"

"Your sister came by. I had a short talk with her."

"How's she taking everything?"

"Probably as well as can be expected; she's uncomfortable around me, and worried about you. I imagine that she'll be back as soon as she hears that you're awake."

Luke stifled a laugh, and it came out as more of a snort. "I imagine she will. Was Han with her?"

"Captain Solo?" Anakin asked, contemplating it. To Luke's affirmative, he said, "Yes, I believe that it was. I didn't see him, so I don't have that much to go on."

"Except the Force."

"Yes, well, I'm not exactly in the best of shape right now, insofar as my ability to connect with the Force."

Luke bit his lip, concern spilling out around him. "Is…is it a permanent thing?"

He was silent for a few moments. "It is and it isn't. My capacity to touch the Force was severely diminished when I was injured on Mustafar, but this, I think is temporary, and will pass as I regain my strength."

"Father?" he asked again.

"Yes, Luke?"

"Welcome home," he said, and then drifted back into semi-consciousness as his father mulled his words over in stunned silence.

* * *

Helena Eserina pursed her lips in a sort of frown as she looked over the information she'd just pulled up on her datapad. She'd been able to talk some of the Rebellion's more colorful slicers into getting her Vader's medical records from the Empire's database, and some of what it said made sick twisted sense, if you looked at it from the point of view that the intention was to keep him in the suit and as uncomfortable as possible.

She was uncertain how to take some of it. There was a point in time about three years previous where he'd been offered the option to try to undergo the massive surgery that she was now contemplating, but he'd been told then that the likelihood of success was less than twenty percent. It wasn't high enough to be out of the 'risky' category in reality; perhaps sixty percent, but certainly they could reduce the risk by doing the surgeries individually, if he chose that route, and he could stop at any point, between the procedures, at least.

He could choose to go ahead and do them all at once. She would have personally wanted all the surgery done at once, in his position, and the overall risk was lower, considering his health, the shorter surgery times only increased the survivability to doing each surgery individually to somewhere around eighty percent.

_And the way he heals,_ she thought, _I think it's probably much higher._ She'd been monitoring both Vader and Luke, and both had progressed remarkably and she'd revised her estimate of how soon they'd wake twice already, and her current estimate said it would still be a couple of hours. Her com buzzed, and she absently reached over and turned it on; if it had been an emergency, that wouldn't have been the way that her staff would have summoned her. That was what the shipwide was for. "Yes?"

The voice on the other end was that of Estelle Corans, her head duty nurse for what passed for the day shift of the ship. "I thought you'd want to know that Commander Skywalker's vitals show that he was awake a little bit ago. I wasn't at station, I was on my rounds, and Jaynie didn't catch it. Vader's vitals have been very erratic, but I can't say as to why. He's always out when I go in there, but his vitals are consistent with him having been awake a few times."

"I'll come check on them. I have Vader's records from the Empire."

"I'd like a quick look at them, while you're down here."

"I thought you might," she said. "Be there in a minute," she said, and flipped the com off, grabbing her lab coat, more out of habit than a real need for the equipment she had stashed in the many pockets. She slid the datapad into one of those pockets—one that she'd designated for the purpose.

It wasn't far to the central ring of patient rooms in the ship, where she'd stashed her two most famous patients. Commander Skywalker did indeed have symptoms consistent with sustained electrical shock, and they were treating him gently. He could have done with a couple of days in a bacta tank, though it wasn't absolutely necessary. And since he could do without it, he was. She had far more seriously injured patients who would likely die without the same treatment that would only serve to get him on his feet faster. If she had a tank open in a couple of days, she was considering dunking him anyway. It would make him feel a lot better a lot faster. There was little that she could do to make Vader's stay any more comfortable, though she hoped to be able to make it palatable. It depended entirely on him, and she hoped he would be a good patient, though considering his actions towards others in general and his physicians in particular while he was in the service of the Emperor, she doubted it.

"There you are," Estelle said as she rounded the corner.

"Yes, here I am," she agreed and pulled the datapad out of her pocket. "Here's his chart history. I'll just drop in and check on our boys."

"Main com just notified me that the _Falcon_ is on her way back, bringing Princess Organa and General Solo."

"Well, maybe news of visitors will get Commander Skywalker up for us," she said lightly, and then proceeded into the room.

She looked Vader over first, placing her stethoscope over his heart. While the machines could monitor facets of a being's health, in her opinion, nothing beat a good old-fashioned stethoscope for troubleshooting a patient. "Do you have to put that cold thing on my bare skin?"

She managed not to grin, since that was the other benefit of using such equipment. His eyes were a startling shade of blue, and she looked at him while she continued what she was doing. "I am checking your breathing and heart rate," she told him unconcernedly, and he sighed.

"Don't you have equipment for that?"  
"Yes, and it's currently pressed against your chest. It's good to see you awake." He grumbled something unintelligible, and she did smile this time, lifting the stethoscope, and putting it back around her neck. "I take it you don't agree with my assessment?"

"Well," he said with a sigh, his voice clear despite the oxygen mask he had to talk through, "I suppose it's better than being dead, which I rather expected at this point."

"I think we will at least be able to avoid that," she said, "And perhaps even do something about bringing your quality of life up to par."

He regarded her with curiosity. "What do you mean?" he asked finally.

"Well, at the very least, I want to replace your prosthetic limbs with something a little higher quality, and something that is the proper size. There are other surgery options that I will want to take a look at with you, but we have quite a bit of time to go over those options with you. Whatever that chemical was that your suit was pumping you with, I want to be absolutely certain that you're over any withdrawal symptoms before we talk surgery seriously."

"Withdrawal?"

"We had the stuff analyzed, and it looks like it had some addictive properties, but I'm not certain. It will be a few weeks before I will even consider clearing you for surgery." Vader nodded, thinking about what she'd said. "But for the moment, you seem to be doing well enough. Is there anything you want to tell the vultures right off?"

"Vultures?"

"The military types who will insist on knowing every facet of information you hold in your head. I don't think they will formally debrief you until I release you, though considering who you are, they might insist on it anyway. I can fend them off for a few more days even if they get insistent based on medical necessity, and if someone up top backs me, then indefinitely, at least until you're better, but if there's anything of a, shall we say, time sensitive nature, then we'd best get them on it."

"Oh," he said, understanding what she wanted, finally, she supposed, and his brow creased as he frowned in concentration. "There is nothing that immediately comes to mind as far as things that they need to know _now._"

"Alright, now, something to ease my mind. What the kriff were you doing bringing Commander Skywalker here if you were fighting him?"

He frowned again. "I'm not sure I can answer that right now without revealing information of a sensitive nature that I am not prepared to reveal just yet."

"I'm a doctor. This would fall under doctor-patient confidentiality agreements."

"It's not my information to reveal, entirely. I must speak with Luke and…others before I can determine who can and should know the answers to that question."

She frowned, but if he was protecting someone else from potentially damaging information, she could understand how he felt. She'd had a number of defectors through her ship, and especially if they had families who were still under the jurisdiction of the Empire, they could be this cagy. _Hell, _she thought wryly, _this is downright open compared to some of the people I've seen through here. At least he's honest about why he doesn't want to say anything. _"Alright. It won't do you or me any good right now to press you, so I'll leave you alone, but we'll get back to this topic, don't you worry about that," she said, smiling again.

"I should know the answer tomorrow, if that is acceptable."

"As to whether you can tell me?" she asked, and he nodded, slowly. "Alright, I'll hold you to that," she told him and turned and went to Commander Skywalker's bedside.

He stirred, waking as she pressed the stethoscope onto his chest. "Do you have to put that cold thing on my bare skin?"

It was startling, because it was said in the same tone of voice as what Vader had said to her. In fact, it was the exact same wording. "Well, I won't be long with it," she told him, and he looked up at her, blue eyes the same icy shade as Vader's. "You need to rest, and you aren't to be up and around. You, I trust, can stay in bed and behave yourself?"

He grinned unrepentantly at her. She'd had to patch him up before, and he was one of her _worst_ patients. "I'll behave until Leia gets here," he promised finally.

She frowned. "How did you know she was on her way?"

He sighed. "She's in the system. She would be here sometime today, no matter what else was going on."

It was logical, but there had to be something more to it, the way he'd said it, and she frowned at him. "No Force powers for you either, mister."

He frowned petulantly. "I promised to be good already. I don't feel like doing much beyond being awake right now, anyway."

"Sorry about that. If I could have you in a bacta tank right now, I would. Your body took quite a hit, and I don't doubt it hurts something fierce."

He nodded. "Maybe not sharp, but my whole body aches."

"I think you'll be here for a while, so you'd better just resign yourself to that fact now. And don't go getting any ideas about Princess Organa springing you out of here, or any such nonsense. I will release you when you are well enough to return to your duties, and not a minute before."

He sighed, but she held his eyes until he dropped them, acquiescing to her terms. "Yes, Doctor Eserina."

"Good boy. I'll be by in a few hours, after Princess Organa leaves, or if she's taking entirely too much time, I will boot her out. Just because you're hurt doesn't mean she doesn't have work to do, and I will remind her of that if she doesn't think about it before I have to."

He sighed, and said, "All right. I'll remind her that she needs to work at some point if she doesn't leave on her own. I think you're overreacting, though."

"You're right. She's worse than useless when you're in a bacta tank."

He perked up at that a bit. "She was that worried about me?"

"Yes, she was that worked up about it, especially since it had been most of the night since anyone had seen you when we'd brought you in."

He shook his head, and settled into a restful position. "I won't take up anymore of your time," he said, "But I'll see you when you get back."

"You are entirely too much," she told him, and with that she left to see about her other patients.

* * *

A rare case of nerves set in on Leia as Han settled the _Falcon_ into her assigned berth on the _Mercy_. The ship hadn't contacted her, but she knew that Luke was awake, and furthermore, that Vader was as well. It wasn't unexpected; the doctor had said Vader was in slightly better shape than Luke, though Luke was expected to make a full recovery.

Vader, she'd found, looking at the preliminary medical report Doctor Eserina had sent the command staff, was lucky to be alive. He'd survived horrific tragedies, though of what type, she had no particular way to know. The gut-level reaction she'd had to reading the report had been anger, she realized that most of what was done to him had to have been done by the Emperor, and he was dead. That fact, though, wasn't enough to smother the fire of her rage. The thing she didn't really know was rather she was angrier at her…father for letting all of this happen, or at the Emperor for making it happen.

She shivered as she felt both of them reach out to her, Luke happily, and Vader hesitantly, ready to withdraw at the slightest provocation. She felt reassurance in their direction, and looked at Han, and he grinned at her, sliding his arms around her protectively. She stood on her tiptoes, and he took that for the invitation that it was, and kissed her. It was more solid to her now than it had been when he'd kissed her at the party on Endor, shortly before she'd been pulled aside to take the call that Luke was hurt, and she felt a tingling up her spine as she wondered what was going to eventually come of…this.

"Come on, let's not keep Luke waiting."

"He isn't supposed to be awake yet, according to the last thing I saw."

"He's awake, and he's been awake since breakfast this morning. He took a nap, but he's awake again. Come on," she told him.

He rolled his eyes, clearly a disparaging thought about the Force running through his head, but she didn't really care. "If you're coming, Artoo, you'd better get moving," she called out and got an answering string of beeps, and Threepio trundled up beside him. She headed down the ramp at a suitable pace for a former Senator of the Empire, and leader of a former planet, with the three of them following in her wake.

Luke sat up slowly as they entered the room, "Hi, you two look a lot better than I feel."

"Nice to see you in good enough shape to make bad jokes, kid." Han said with a grin.

"He's right son, that was bad," a raspy voice said from the other side of the curtain.

"Hey! I'm a Jedi Knight, not a stand up comic." Luke said in self-defense.

"How are you two feeling anyway?" Leia said interrupting the banter with the question that was most on her mind.

"I think we'll live, Leia," Luke said to her, and she went over to him, letting the others file in behind her.

"It's good to see you awake," she said, settling onto the edge of his bed and slipping an arm around him.

"Father said you were in here yesterday," he said, and before she could respond Artoo began nattering away with beeps and whistles and raspberries. Lots of raspberries. He seemed to be directing most of his commentary at their father.

"Hey," he said indignantly, "I didn't know you were there. It's not my fault you ended up on the other side in a war." This was responded to with indignant fury that she'd never seen from the droid.

She heard Threepio speaking to Han over another long string of vile sounding beeps and raspberries from Artoo, "Oh, my, sir. I don't think I can translate this for you. My circuits are getting overheated just thinking about what he's saying. I don't know where he picked up such language."

"That's alright, Goldenrod, I think the message gets through quite effectively without the words," Han told the primly proper droid.

"That wasn't _my_ fault. You were the one who let Snips take your parts off. _I_ wasn't even there." Beeping. "That doesn't make it my fault. If that's the case then anything you're blaming on me from before I was Knighted is Obi-Wan's fault."

Artoo let out a series of sounds that she could almost interpret as a derisive snort, and then he turned to another subject, apparently. She looked over at Luke, whose brow was furrowed in concentration as he listened to and, she thought, understood, what Artoo was saying. After Artoo finished with his tirade, he let out one last mournful whistle.

At this, Leia saw the one thing she'd never dream she'd ever see…Darth Vader tear up.

"It...it is good to see you, Artoo."

* * *

Jan Selestian answered the com. It wasn't such an unusual task, so normal, but for the senior JAG officer in the Alliance, it was almost normal for that simple act to precede the munk hitting the turbines. It was with this thought that Jan Selestian, defector to the Alliance to Restore the Republic, and Rear Admiral in the Rebel's forces, as well as being a former Imperial JAG officer of the same rank until he couldn't take his own military's double standards answered the com in a very sedate, normal tone of voice. "Admiral Selestian, JAG office, how may I help you?"

"Jan? It's Mon Mothma," Mon Mothma's voice came over the speaker, she would've sounded normal to nearly everyone, but to Jan's ears, it sounded strained and upset, and he knew that this was going to be bad.

"Yes, Madame President," he said, decorum demanded that he not just cut to the chase, she was after all the President of the Alliance, he sat back in his chair expecting her to engage in some small talk, all business, but minor stuff before she got to the real reason she called.

"You've heard the rumors that Darth Vader is on the _Mercy?"_ she asked, causing Jan to sit up and take notice. This was going to be REALLY bad, for her to not even beat around the bush about it.

"Yes, I have even seen the security reports on his arrival. What's the problem that you need my help? I have it on good authority that he's still in the care of the _Mercy_." He was puzzled, normally, if a defector was injured in the process of defecting (an all-too-common occurrence) the legal part of his defection was postponed until after the medical staff released them, and they usually took their sweet time to do so.

"He is, but I have had the incredible displeasure of speaking to Threkin Horm. He's heard about Vader being aboard the _Mercy_ and is demanding a trial for him," her voice was flat, hiding the rage Jan knew she had to be feeling.

"And you want a legal position on this, correct?" Jan asked.

"Yes, but also I need you to assign council to Vader as soon as possible."

"Why? He doesn't have a leg to stand on; hell he doesn't even have a surface to stand on if he HAD the leg. There is nothing we can charge him with, if he's not defecting, then he's a POW and subject to the same rules of all POWs, if he is defecting, then he'll get processed through just like the rest of us did."

"If only it was just a legal issue. He's threatened to split the Alliance with this."

"Can he do that? Everyone knows the rules on this. Even he knows the rules governing this."

"True enough, but he's good a whipping up emotions. I don't think he'd succeed in splitting the Alliance, but this is a critical time and he would do severe damage."

"I see…We can't charge him as he is effectively in Bail's place and has the right to take his people out of the Alliance. Princess Leia should never have let him take power that way."

"She didn't think she had a choice. We're trying to restore Democracy, remember?"

"I know, but she should have run against him, she'd have won in a landslide."

"True, but tradition forbids the Royal house from intervening in domestic politics that way."

Jan gave a derisive snort at that, then continued, "Ok, well, first we need to determine Vader's actual status. Has he said that he intends to defect?"

"Princess Leia assures us that he will cooperate."

"Did she get that officially recorded?"

"No. She didn't."

"That's not good enough Mon.," Jan said in a pained tone.

"He did save Commander Skywalker's life,." She pointed out.

"Ok, that's better. With that we can grant him provisional defector status until through verbal refutation or contradictory action he proves us wrong. However I want to get his official declaration of defection on record as quickly as possible. Also in light of the apparent…forgive me I was about to say Sith hunt," Jan shook his head ruefully.

"I know what you meant, Jan,." she said sympathetically.

"Anyway as I was getting ready to say, he needs council now as opposed to when the medics are finished with him. I'll head over to the _Mercy_ as soon as we finish here."

"You'll be taking the case?" she sounded surprised.

"Yes, with something this high profile I'm the logical choice. I think we can stop a trial in its tracks, but it won't be easy if public opinion gets really out of control.. The idiot doesn't know what a can of dung he's opened by even considering this."

"Yes, there are a lot of people that would like to see Darth Vader executed…damn it, there's a part of me that would like to see it."

"Not a large part Mon, or we wouldn't be having this discussion."

"True enough."

"Was there anything else?"

"Isn't this enough?"

"I suppose so. Once I take Vader on as a client though I won't be able to talk to you about the case, and Captain Mulfera will have to cover my duties here."

"I understand. Thank you."

"All part of the service," he said and closed the connection.


	3. Revelations

**AN: Sorry this took so long, I am currently working on an actual novel of my own. **

**Frodogenic- Thanks for the reveiw! I'm glad you like it. The reason I started this is that the Vader Lives fics I've seen in the past either have the Alliance either go the route of a lynch mob or all is sunshine and flowers. I wanted to try for something a little more realistic. The Alliance has to have a defection process, part of that process would be a vetting period, any serious defector would understand that they'd be under a little bit of suspicion, and that the suspicion would be in direct relation to their rank. I'm having the Alliance leadership take the defection route primarly because Vader is directly responsible for save the life of one of their more valued memebers, Luke. Maybe I need to rewrite the first chapter a little to show this thought process a bit more. At any rate, I'm glad you are enjoying it.**

**Also on Vader's word choice, yeah, I goofed on that, it should be better now.**

**To everyone else who reveiwed, thanks! Glad you are enjoying! Now chapter three!**

* * *

Threkin Horm settled into his repulsorchair, and he was rather annoyed. This shouldn't even be an issue but it was. He looked over at the door, drumming his fingers against the chair support, and waited. He'd called in a favor from one of the JAG officers, one of the few who wasn't a former Imp, who was, in fact, Alderaanian.

Finally the door opened. "Welcome," he beamed brightly as he looked over at the two people who entered, his aide, Deeter Asym, and the JAG officer, Commander Les Yevin.

"Yes, sir," Les said, reaching out to shake his hand. Threkin nodded to his aide, who slipped quietly into the second seat in front of his desk. "I'm sorry I took so long, but I took the liberty of looking through your suggestions and trying to find legal precedent for them and I couldn't. If he defects, he defects and starts with a clean slate."

"It's outrageous," he grumbled, not for the first time that day.

"I know it is, Mr. President, but what can we do? Mon Mothma runs the Alliance."

"He should be surrendering. It's a trick, I tell you. He's here to destroy us once and for all and I won't have it."

"That may be, President Horm, however, they've invoked the defection rules for him, and; that limits our options," Yevin said.

"Do you know who will be assigned to handle his defection?" Horm asked, saying the last word as if it left a bad taste in his mouth.

"Officially, no, but, practically, there is only really one choice, Admiral Selestian himself."

"Ok, so what are our options then, Commander?" Horm asked.

"Our only choice is to challenge the legitimacy of Lord Vader's defection in the first place, if we succeed in that then we'd be able to proceed to charge him with crimes against the galaxy. Failing that we really don't have any options, if his defection is accepted and considered legal, that absolves him of any crimes he may have committed in the service of the Empire," Yevin said.

"Meaning that unless we catch him betraying us to the Empire we wouldn't be able to touch him. Unacceptable."

"I agree, sir, which means we have to move quickly to challenge his defection, fortunately I know the judge we want for an injunction, in fact I think I might even get an arrest warrant out him."

"Then I suggest you get busy, Commander," Horm said.

* * *

Jan Selestian walked off of his transport onto the _Mercy_. She was a good ship, though not a pretty one. She served her purpose well, though. He set the idle thoughts aside and focused on his mission. He was here to see about Vader, to legally record his defection, and let him know that he would be doing everything in his power to make sure that justice was done.

"Sir," one of the sentries said, saluting him.

He saluted back. "I have been appointed as Vader's legal council, and, while I would normally wait until he was better to see him, circumstances are not going to permit that. I would like to see my client," he said, then handed him a data disc with official orders to that effect from the JAG office, with Mon Mothma's personal seal of approval, which the man fed into his system, and verified them with Command.

"Yes, sir," the man said, and consulted the patient list. "He's in room C-5-3-1-A. Do you need an escort?"

"No, thank you. I have been aboard this ship enough to know my way."

"Yes, sir," he said, and flipped his com on as Jan walked away, informing the C-5 nurse's station that he was coming.

He walked to the lift, finding the fifth floor, and headed for the center of the ship, where he would find room 31, and his client. He wondered who else was in the room with him. Most people, he knew, would object to anyone rooming with Vader, but space was at a premium on the small ship because of the recent battle.

He nodded to the person on duty at the station, with a big 'C5' painted on the bulkhead behind the station. He didn't know if the young man was a com tech or a nurse, but he was one or the other. Com tech, probably, since there was no one else, "Admiral Selestian?"

"Yes?"

"I need to verify your credentials before you go in there, and note your visit on the logs." Jan nodded, and held his hand up to the bioscanner so that it would tell the young man he was who he'd said he was, and he waited. "Length of visit?"

"I don't expect this to take too long, but if it gets hairy, I can't guarantee that. I'd rather not put a time limit on it."

"As you wish sir, but the Doc will kick your tail out if she gets a mind to. No one argues with Doc Eserina."

"I'll keep that in mind, and the last thing that I want to do is to jeopardize my client's health."

"At least you're better than the Princess. Doc usually has to kick her out."

"Princess Organa?"

"Yeah, she was really worried when Commander Skywalker was hurt last time, and I imagine she'll stay with him 'til Doc kicks her out."

"You sound like you know from experience."

"I've been with the Med unit since just after Yavin, and I watched the Princess struggle with herself while Commander Skywalker spent a couple of days in Bacta on Hoth. She loves him, I can see it, but she loves General Solo, too."

He wondered if that would come into play, since his client had saved the aforementioned Commander Skywalker. But there was really only one way to find out. "Well, while I would love to hear more—and I may need to—unless you have anymore security procedures that you need of me, I do have a client to see."

"No, sir. You can go on in, Admiral."

He smiled and nodded his thanks, turned, and entered the room. Conversation stopped as the door opened. "May I help you?" he heard before he had the door fully open.

The voice belonged to Princess Leia, and he noticed Commander Skywalker in the bed opposite the door. "I was hoping that I could speak with Vader. I had a conversation with Mon Mothma this morning, and she thinks that it will be in his best interest to get the ball rolling on his defection. He is planning on defecting, isn't he?"

She moved aside, letting him into the room, where they seemed to have been including Vader in whatever conversation they'd been having, since the two chairs in the room were pushed against the far wall facing both beds. "You can ask him for yourself."

He took the opportunity presented. "Well, before we get started, let me introduce myself. I am Jan Selestian, head of the JAG office here. Since you are a high level Imperial officer, I felt it my duty to come see you personally. Now, ordinarily I would wait until the doctors released you until you had to talk to anyone, but you are such a political hot potato right now that I can't do that."

"Never could do things the easy way, could you?" Commander Skywalker said with a grin in the direction of his client, who rolled his eyes.

Jan ignored the Alliance pilot for the moment; he would get rid of everyone if he could get away with it momentarily. "Anything that you say to me falls under the protection of attorney-client privilege, so it really doesn't matter what you tell me, I won't say anything."

"I'm familiar with the concept," Vader said, his voice raspy and quiet.

"Now, that being said, I hope that you tell me the truth, not because you lying to me will be embarrassing for me, but it could get you into heaps of trouble, if I'm going on false assumptions."

"That won't be a problem," Vader assured him, "I have never seen the point in lying, not really, though there were those around me who used that to their advantage. Of course, I suppose that when my Master told me that lies by omission were just as bad as telling a mistruth, I didn't really believe that, either."

"Well, good, I see that we have a start on understanding one another, at least. If it would be possible," he said, turning a bit so that he was addressing the whole room, "I would like a little privacy with my client, so that we can discuss some legal matters. I'm not sure how long it will take," he said, and as he paused to take a breath, he heard denial from what he felt was the most unlikely source.

"It will not be possible. Luke is not well enough to be traipsing about the ship, and you can throw Solo out if you want, but my daughter stays."

Shocked by the unexpected turn of events, Jan repeated, "Your daughter?"

"Yes, my son and daughter will be involved in any decision that I make. I trust that will not be a problem."

He recovered after a moment. "No, Lord Vader, it will not."

"And don't call me that."

"What would you like me to call you?"

Vader seemed to consider for a moment. "Anakin."

General Solo stood up. "I'm going to get some food, since my presence here is obviously not required," he said, and Princess Organa followed him out into the hall.

"Do you have a last name to go with that?" he asked, hoping for something, anything other than the name his mind had plugged in almost automatically.

"Skywalker," he was told, and the hope died.

"That's going to be a hard sell for some people."

"I don't particularly care. I will not go by the foul name that I was enslaved under. I will use the name my mother gave me."

Princess Organa, _or was it Skywalker, now?_ came back in. "He's a little put out," she said pointedly.

"This is family business," Anakin said.

"Which is why he's only a little put out. I explained that to him."

"Thank you," he said and turned his attention back to Jan. "You said a word earlier that I hate."

"What do you mean?" he asked warily.

"Political," the word sounded as though it had just come in from ten years in deep space, Anakin's tone wavering between icy hate and complete disgust.

"I take it you dislike politics?"

"With every fiber of my being."

He nodded. "Be that as it may, politics dictates that I must see you now, rather than waiting until you have healed."

"Well," the Princess spoke up, "From what the doctor was saying earlier, it should be a year, maybe longer before he's released from here, with all she wants to do to him."

Jan didn't like the unhappy sound coming from his client just then. "About the only thing I hate worse than hospitals is politics."

"Well, if you get properly treated for your injuries, you shouldn't have to be in here for more than check-ups," Commander Skywalker said to his father.

"That's the only reason that I'm even willing to consider what she's wanting to do."

"If we can get back to the topic at hand," Jan said, and received instant expectant silence, and it was slightly unnerving. "I'd like to get a formal declaration of intent to defect from you."

He looked thoughtful for a moment, and then looked back and forth between his children. "Considering I'm responsible for the Emperor's death, I suppose the answer to that is yes, unless the Alliance intends to try me for treason, that is," Anakin said.

Jan laughed, "It seems you a sense of humor after all."

"I used to, it helps deal with the absurd, and in the Empire I had to deal with a lot of that."

"I don't believe it, Darth Vader is cracking jokes," Princess Leia said with a smile.

"You think you inherited your singular wit solely from your mother, child of mine?" Anakin asked.

She shrugged. "In all honesty I never thought about it."

"I'll tell you stories later. Right now I believe we have reports to fill out. When can I expect debriefing?"

"That depends on a variety of factors, the most obvious being your health," Jan said.

"Can you think of anything pressing we need to know Father?" Commander Skywalker asked.

"Nothing comes to mind, the Emperor envisioned Endor as the final battle with the Alliance. What he planned afterwards, he did not shared with me before the battle. If anything comes to mind though, I will voice it," Anakin said.

"Very well, for now your verbal statement of intention to defect is sufficient for me to get started on the paperwork. However you three need to be thinking about how you want to handle your relationship. My recommendation is that you come forward with the information as soon as possible, as it WILL come out eventually," Jan said.

"You sound like you are expecting trouble over this, Admiral," Leia said.

"Unfortunately I am, Your Highness, from one of your own people, no less," Jan said.

Leia's face darkened, "Who, Admiral?"

"President Threkin Horm," Jan said.

"I'll skin him alive," Leia growled.

* * *

Helena Eserina looked in on her two troublemakers. It was early in the morning, and she wanted to check on them before she got started with her other rounds. "Good morning."

"Good morning," Vader said back to her. She glanced over to the bed where Luke was still sleeping, "I have an answer for you," he told her, and she turned back to him.

"Ah," she said with a smile, "And what would that be?"

"I brought Luke back from the Death Star because I care about him."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "And?"

"He means a lot to me. I couldn't let him die," he said, looking over at the sprawled form that was Luke Skywalker. "He's my son."

Her eyes tracked over to Luke again. She hadn't expected that. He was probably the last person in the galaxy she would have expected to have had kids, well, maybe the Emperor, but certainly no Sith would have children. And maybe that was the point. He was no longer Sith, and therefore, he could be open about the existence of his son. "Well, that certainly puts a wrinkle in things."

"It does. My daughter is not pleased to have this dumped on all of us, but she lives up to the Skywalker name."

"Daughter?"

"Leia. She has the look of her mother, of course, but I would say her attitude is much closer to mine. I don't know if that will be a good thing or a bad one. I fear that we will spend time butting heads if we are both not careful."

She closed her eyes, mentally stabilizing herself from the shock. "I'll ensure that the medical records are updated to reflect that status for all three of you."

"Very well. Your agenda for me today?"

"Today, you have an initial battery of tests, we'll be going through them several times, so that we can find out what your baseline readings are, and once we're sure you're clear for surgery, we'll start talking more seriously about that. I was able to obtain your Imperial medical records, and I wanted to tell you that I'm not pleased with them. One of the main things is how much your doctors lied to you. There was a note that you were offered this same surgery, but told the expectations for your survival were something like one in five, which is definitely not the case."

"What are your expectations for my surgery prospects?" he asked, considerably brightened by the prospect that he would be able to survive this procedure.

"Well, there are three major procedures that I will want to consider in detail with you, and your children can sit in on those meetings if you would like their input on the situation. The first is going to be the prosthetic replacement, obviously. The second is the spinal surgery. I know you had spinal leads from your neck to your suit, and we've removed those, even though it gives you practically no mobility, and I'm sorry about that. The third is to assess the actual functionality of your internal organs."

"The third is most risky," he said.

"Yes, in a lot of ways, it is. The first, since you have already had the initial surgeries to meld the machines to your body, will be very low risk. Though I will want to examine your nerve-prosthetic interfaces to see if they are up to par. If not, which I rather suspect is the case, then we can see about replacing those as well, and that will be more risky, though not by much. The spinal surgery could potentially do more damage than anything, if something were to go wrong, but I don't see that happening. The third could introduce an infection into your already weakened system and kill you. I don't expect that to be a problem, either, but it is not out of the realm of possibility. You shouldn't have too much of a problem, I don't think. I think it might be in your best interest to do all three surgeries at once, but that will mean a long and complicated procedure, which means more risk, or you can take the three surgeries separately, and take time to heal between each of them, and then tackle the next."

"I don't want to make a decision right now, but I will think about it," Vader told her. "And you should put my name on my charts."

"Isn't Vader your name?"

"No, it's rather likemore of a title, a title for a slave...My name is Anakin Skywalker."

* * *

Luke, Leia and Han sat in the _Mercy's_ galley eating, while Vader—Han still couldn't think of him in any other terms—had medical tests that were going to take up much of the day and the doctor had released Luke for light activity onboard the _Mercy_. Hence here they were having lunch together. It was something that they'd never really done before unless they were on a mission, not the three of them at any rate.

"…and then he told me to watch my temper!"

"Actually he said you needed 'to be mindful of your feelings'. He's right too. You do need to control your emotions, Leia," Luke told her calmly, "Especially if you are going to become a Jedi."

"I've got enough to do without that," she said, "But I've been thinking about that a little bit. But the nerve of him telling me that," she said. She was harping, and in Han's experience, it was best to either let Luke deal with her until she came down a few notches or to let her storm until she spent herself out. The first was easier, and Han's preference, but he didn't always have the Kid underfoot to throw at his sister. Sister…he should've seen THAT one coming from a dozen parsecs.

"He's speaking from experience. If you want an object lesson on what the dark side does to someone, just take a good look at the catalogue of injuries he's sustained."

"I know, I know," she said, and turned her attention to her food for a few minutes. "It's not like I'm actually contemplating killing him, it's just, you know, a turn of phrase."

Luke laughed a little. "I know; that's why I'm not repeating the lecture. If I thought for a moment that you really were that angry, I'd be tying you down myself until you saw reason."

She rolled her eyes, "Thanks for the vote of confidence, Luke. I do think I was raised with a bit better sense than that."

"The path to the dark side is a slippery slope. In fact I really think we both need to hear Father's story on how it happened to him."

"Just what I need…tabloid talk-holo time with Daddy," Leia said, rolling her eyes.

"I know it doesn't sound appealing, but it would give us an example of how a fundamentally good person can become what he was."

"Alright," she acquiesced, "I see your point, even if I don't really like it, and as bonus I'll try to watch my temper a little bit more."

"Wow, kid, that's the fastest I've ever seen her turn around on something," Han said, with a smirk.

"You better watch you're mouth, flyboy," Leia said.

"Or what?"

"Or you might wake up with ice in your shorts."

"Ouch…you really sure about falling in love with her Han?"

"I'm not scared of her, Chewie will protect me," Han replied.

"You really want to test that theory?" Leia said with a twinkle in her eye.

"On second thought, maybe discretion really is the better part of valor," Han said.

"Smart man. I think I'll keep you after all," Leia said, kissing Han

Several minutes went by and Luke cleared his throat and asked, "So what kind of problems do you think this Horm guy is going to give us? I haven't had the, uh, pleasure, of meeting him yet."

She sighed, "Well, he's as pigheaded as anyone I've ever met, and one of the platforms he got elected on was making the people responsible for Alderaan's destruction pay."

Luke was quiet for a long moment. "Aren't they all dead now that the Emperor is gone? I know you blamed Father for a long time, but even then you understood intellectually that he was under Tarkin's orders, and Tarkin died with the Death Star."

"Yes," she said, "They are all gone, at least so far as the leadership, as for the ones who carried out the order…"

"They died when I destroyed the Death Star," Luke finished.

"At any rate I suspect that the fact that he was even there will make him a target for Horm. I think he's a true believer, which will make him hard to dissuade."

"He believes that nonsense he was rattling on about when he was elected?" Han asked..

"Yes, I think he does. That's what probably scares me most about that man."

"Why didn't you run against him?" Han asked.

"Tradition, the Royal family of Alderaan never got involved in planetary electoral politics," she replied.

"But you were a Senator," Luke said.

"That was also tradition, a member of the Royal family has always served in the Senate, up until the Empire disbanded it."

"I don't get it," Han said.

"You don't have to. A planets traditions aren't planned out and don't always make sense," Leia explained.

"And the fact that Father has renounced the dark side probably isn't going to be enough for him, right?" Luke asked, putting the conversation back on track.

"No, he won't even believe it is possible. In fact a lot of people are going to have trouble accepting it. Horm will use that against him."

"Even at the cost of the unity of the Alliance?" Han asked.

"I wouldn't put it past him. I haven't had to deal with him much, but I don't feel comfortable with him, and I never have, primarily because of his tendency to adopt scorched earth tactics to achieve his goals."

"He and Jabba would've gotten along great," Han snorted.

"Yes, but there's more to it than that. It's difficult to describe because it's rather unique," she drawled the last couple of words, as her mind became occupied with something other than what she was saying. Luke concentrated on finishing his meal, now that he'd extracted a promise from Leia to work on her temper, and Han waited while her mind worked through whatever connection it had made while she was talking. "Now that I think on it, he reminds me of the Emperor."

"In what way?" Luke asked warily.

"The slimy way?" she shrugged. "I'm not really sure I could put it into words."

Luke nodded, and chewed the bite he had just taken. "We'll just have to be careful then."

* * *

Threkin Horm directed his repulsorchair off the transport onto the deck of the _Mercy_. He'd finagled a lot of favors in order to be able to deliver an arrest warrant to Vader today. He was, ostensibly, only there as a revered member of the government to observe the historic event, for posterity. He had handpicked the guards that were going with him to take Vader into custody. They wouldn't let anyone get in their way, and they were devotedly loyal to him.

"We are here to see Darth Vader," Horm told the guard waiting at the station. "What room is he in?"

"Identification," the duty officer said, bored, and held his hand out to Horm. He fished it out of one of the pockets in the chair.

Once his identity had been verified, and the guards' as well, the duty officer tapped a command into his computer. He scrunched his face in confusion, and then tried something else. "We have no patients named "Darth" or "Vader" either as first or last names. I am sorry, gentlemen."

"Well, call his doctor. He is under the care of Doctor Helena Eserina," Horm blustered with all his might. The man could be quite an imposing sight even though he was confined to his repulsorchair.

"Yes, sir," the duty officer replied, adjusting the com to the settings he needed in order to reach the doctor. "Doctor Eserina," he said stiffly, "There are some men here to see one of your patients, and I cannot find him in the database."

"Which patient?" the question sounded flat, as though she knew the answer already.

"Vader, Ma'am."

"I'm sorry, but no one is being allowed to see him. He has spent all day today in very rigorous testing, and he's quite worn out."

"Ma'am, I'm sorry but these gentlemen are very insistent," he pleaded with her.

"Send them to my office then," she said, and he sighed with relief. "I will tell them myself."

"Yes, Ma'am," he said, and the com disconnected from her end. "You may go to her office. She said…"

"I heard what she said," Horm retorted. "I'm not incapable of hearing just because I'm in this chair," his cold tone set the officer back a bit.

"Then I'm sure you don't need an escort down to the Doctor's office, since you are so capable," the duty officer replied, and firmly went back to the datapad that had been abandoned on their arrival.


	4. Moves and Countermoves

**AN: So here is chapter four of trib! For those who have waited for this, I appreciate your patience. For those of you just joining us, you should be aware I have six different projects I'm working on, and that is on top of the day job. :) I'm hoping to sell at least one of the other three that you all aren't seeing here. Wish me luck!**

Helena Eserina sat back in her chair with a bit of trepidation. She normally wasn't this protective of her patients, but they also weren't usually this ill. Threkin Horm, leader of the Alderaanian Council—a body, to all appearances, dedicated to revenging the destruction of their planet—maneuvered his repulsorchair into her office. She looked dispassionately at him and the armed escort that he brought into her office with him.

"Doctor Eserina," he greeted her cordially. She nodded acknowledgement of the greeting.

"I am busy putting information into my patients' records. Please be brief, I would like to go home soon."

"We need to see Vader."

"That is not possible, as the duty officer at the landing bay told you. We have no patient named Vader here."

Horm sputtered for a full minute, it seemed like. She fought very hard to keep a smile from her face, and to all appearances, succeeded. "Then what name do you have the creature under?"

"There are no creatures here. We do not treat sub-sentient beings at this facility."

He sighed, exasperated, and said slowly, "Vader, what name is Vader under."

"I do not know what you are talking about, gentlebeings," she said, and at that moment her com sounded. "Mr. Skywalker has asked to see you, doctor."

"Tell him I will be there momentarily, I am just finishing up a meeting with some gentlebeings who were about to leave."

"Yes, Ma'am, but he's rather agitated. I'd prefer if you'd hurry it up."

"Certainly," she said into the com, then turned it off. "Well, I have patients to attend to; I don't have to provide an escort for you, do I?"

Horm's face started to turn purple at the dismissal, but she ignored him as she put her doctor's coat back on. "If he's asking for you, it can't be that urgent."

She smiled her best professional smile. "Still, that he's asking for me at all worries me. He doesn't like me, I don't think."

She could feel the hesitation as she looked at them expectantly. "We need to see Vader."

"I'm sorry, but that is just not possible," she told him.

"We can have you arrested for obstructing justice," Horm told her, waiving the arrest warrant at her. She looked at it and handed it back to the grossly obese man.

"Perhaps, but I doubt that. Mr. Skywalker is waiting for me, gentlebeings, so if you don't mind vacating my office, I need to leave."

That finally did the trick. There was really no one in the alliance who didn't think of Luke Skywalker as a hero, and delaying her was, potentially going to delay his recovery. Even though Horm wanted Vader, he couldn't, apparently, justify to himself risking Luke's health over it. Not that it was actually Luke that was asking for her. Luke was kind and patient, though he didn't like spending time in sick bay anymore than his father did. He just naturally had more tact about things than Anakin.

She followed Horm and his cronies to the turbolift and watched them get on, then headed a bit further down to see her two favorite patients, and see what was the matter.

* * *

Jan Selestian settled into his office to file the paperwork on the defection of Anakin Skywalker. First thing he did was do a standard search for the names Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker. The later turned up an extensive and impressive war record. The former turned up, among other things, an arrest warrant.

When he saw that, he sat back, sighing, wondering how he could deal with it. It was a standing warrant; one that was issued as one of the first official acts of the Alliance, in fact. That didn't make his job any easier, and if Horm got a hold of this, then it might put a freeze on the defection proceedings. This could be a problem, a big one. But it wasn't Darth Vader that he was doing paperwork for. It was Anakin Skywalker. If he could squeak this by Horm before they made the announcement about Anakin and his children, then there was a chance that it would be less of a hassle. If the arrest warrant was served before Mon Mothma signed the paperwork, it could be more problematic.

His eyes sparkled as he thought of how he could one up the old windbag. He buried the part about him being Darth Vader deep within the report, far enough to convince the casual reader that there was nothing interesting in it, just a standard report. It was a long one; he enumerated a number of reasons that they should take the former Jedi into their ranks, and they were all good ones, he thought. He sent the report, and a special abstract that was for the President's eyes only, on to Mon Mothma's desk, along with a request that she revoke the arrest warrant for Vader. A less complete abstract, one that left out the important fact that Anakin Skywalker was Darth Vader, went with the defection report. If he was very lucky, all that would be read was the abstract, which was a brief 500 words, rather than the full 15,000 word defection report, with the part about Darth Vader being buried in the last third.

Les Yevin walked into his office. "Hey, are you working on the Darth Vader defection?"

Alarm bells immediately went off in his head. "Yes. It's going to be a while 'til I get to the paperwork on him; he's still under the care of the _Mercy_. and going to be there for a long time from the sound of it. Why?"

Les grinned. "Just wondering who would be handling it is all, boss. No worries."

Jan raised an eyebrow, "Want it for yourself?"

"Nah, people would probably see a conflict of interest."

He remembered that Les was Alderaanian. That could be a problem. "Well, I figured I could handle the problem best. He's not too bad of a guy once you get to know him. Went over and had a long discussion with him yesterday."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," Jan told him, leaning his chair back and putting his feet up on his desk. It was probably undignified, but he didn't really care. He needed for Les to believe that he was relaxed about this, doling out bits of information that wouldn't tell the man anything, and hopefully would allay his fears, if he had any.

"So we are going to defect him?"

"That's what he's asking for. Even Princess Leia is up for giving him a chance."

Les cocked his head. "Really. I hadn't heard that."

"It's not exactly public information as of yet. I know that President Horm is against it, and I think she doesn't want to publically humiliate him by coming out against him, especially with some of the things that are going to be coming forth," he said, and Les looked contemplative at that, but he was hoping that Les knew him well enough to not press for further detail.

"So when are you filing papers on him?"

"Don't know. just yet," he stalled, wondering if Horm had gotten to Les and Les was spying for the old windbag. "It may be months. before he's even out of the hospital, so I've got some time. You know we like to vet people before we fully defect them. With Vader being as high profile as he is, it could take months for the leadership to believe that he's actually turned good. Besides, according to the doctors, it's going to be months before he's well enough to be of use to the alliance, anyway. There's really not much of a rush on the paperwork right now."

"With someone as high profile as the Princess backing him, are you sure that it's going to take that long?"

"She's primarily backing him because he saved Commander Skywalker's life, I think. He's hurt her very deeply, so she may back down to neutral after a few days."

Les nodded. "He's not creepy?"

Jan shook his head, "He's just a man. I think there is a lot more hype about Vader than there is truth."

"Can I come with the next time you see him? Are you going to see him in the near future?"

"Afraid not. I'm probably not going to be seeing him for quite some time. I've got other cases to be working on and he's not going anywhere."

"You filed anything recently?"

"Oh, I did. Been working on it all day. Anakin Skywalker."

Les's eyes got huge. "The Hero with no Fear?" he asked excitedly.

"The same. Luke's father, too. The Alliance will be lucky to have him."

"Where's he been? It's been 20 years!"

"I am not at liberty to discuss that, you know that Les, at least not until it gets approved. I just put it in when you walked in."

"I didn't hear that we had any Jedi, real Jedi, come in."

"We are trying to keep it low-key. He doesn't want a lot of publicity."

Les smirked. "Probably why he went into hiding for 20 years. I would have, too, if I was as famous as him."

Jan shrugged. "As much as I'm enjoying this, I need to get back to work."

"Still? It's late. You should at least go eat dinner with me. Tell me about meeting with Anakin Skywalker. Force, I don't even know what to say about that. It's such an amazing find for the alliance."

"Perhaps," Jan said. "I have five more cases that I need to file, and some of them are pretty urgent. I'll come to dinner, but we have to get off the subject of my clients. You know I can't talk about that."

Les made a face. "Alright. I think that anyone who doesn't want Skywalker as part of the Alliance is a fool."

"Have to do paperwork on everyone, you know that."

Les rolled his eyes. "I know. I'm up to my eyeballs in it every kriffing day. Come on," he said, getting up. Jan got up and followed him to the mess.

* * *

Leia was a bit miffed that Doctor Eserina had kicked both her and Han out, but she had to admit that Vader had looked beat, and that she did have other things she could be doing other than hovering over her male family members. "Han," she started, but she didn't know what she wanted to say to him.

"I know. You're still worried about Luke and the Vader insanity," he said, not looking up from the controls. They were currently on a direct course from the _Mercy_ to _Home One_.

"I don't know what to think about it all, it's just happening so fast."

"I'm right there with you, sweetheart. Vader goes from deadly enemy to weird broken father-figure overnight?" she nodded for him to continue. "It's only been two days, sweetheart. Give yourself a little time to let it sink in. You don't have to accept all of it at once."

She nodded, but she didn't really know what to say, still about all of the jumbled emotions that she knew he wouldn't understand. she could _feel_, really feel the truth behind how incredibly sorry Vader—Anakin—was about some of what had happened. And somehow, that made things worse. She didn't at all feel like she was ready to forgive him for some of what he'd done. She was willing to have him around because it would be good for the Alliance, and it seemed that it was also doing Luke good, too. He rubbed the back of her hand with his, offering silent sympathy. He didn't want her to hurt, but it seemed unavoidable. She was Darth Vader's daughter. He felt helpless in the wake of such an unmitigated disaster, and she could feel that as sharply as she could feel the ebb and flow of her brother's emotions. Her father's were more insulated; she didn't know if that was her doing, his, or just the fact that she didn't know him as well as she knew Luke.

She fell into silent contemplation as Han started his approach. She knew that he felt almost lost without Chewie around, but he had been able to connect more readily with the Ewoks, and so was staying on the ground on Endor, coordinating some of the cleanup there. Luke was not falling asleep as he was supposed to be, but that was not his fault, but the enforced rest that he was under because of his injuries. It almost felt like he was talking to his father. He probably was. They were talking about calming Jedi things. Perhaps. Luke was further along in the Darth-Vader-is-my-father acceptance thing than she was. It was easy to accept that Luke was her brother, but hard to accept that Anakin was her father.

"Come on," Han said, and she looked up. They had landed while she was thinking.

"Sorry," she said with a smile. "I spaced out, I out, I guess."

"You need to go to sleep."

"I have work to do," she said, "I'll be alright."

"No, you won't. You can do it in the morning. You are going to sleep if I have to tie you to the bed."

She looked at him. He was seriously contemplating doing it. "Alright," she relented. "I suppose I could do with the sleep. I can get started in the morning."

* * *

Luke lay in the hospital bed, but he was restless. He'd only been awake a few hours and he had really done anything, the years on the farm and then in the Alliance had made it so that he really had to do SOMETHING before he could sleep. He really didn't want to disturb his father, but boredom finally got the better of him and he spoke.

"Father, are you awake?"

"Yes, son, I am. I was afraid you were asleep," his Father answered, it was a little creepy, since they had put his vocal enhancer back on so he'd be easier to understand, so he sounded like Vader.

"No, between Uncle Owen, the Alliance, and Master Yoda, I've gotten to the point where I have to do something before I can sleep, that or be up thirty-six hours," Luke answered.

"Your parentage probably has something to do with that. I have never been one to sleep much, even as a boy. The only thing your grandmother ever really got angry with me with was my not going to bed when she thought I needed to."

"That is the first time you've mentioned her. What was she like?"

"She was my mother," and Luke could hear the smile in his father's voice "She had been a slave most of her life I think. She was not young when I was born and she had never been married, primarily due to her being in bondage. She was the most caring person in the universe, in spite of the cruelty the universe had shown her. She did everything she could to keep the true harshness of our reality from me. The fact that Watto owned us helped—for a slave owner he was kind, in his own way."

"You were a slave?" Luke asked, shock in his voice.

"Yes, I was for the first nine years of my life, until Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi came to Tatooine with a damaged hyperdrive and a rather reckless Nabooian Queen."

"You've known Obi-Wan since you were nine?"

"Yes, I was instrumental in helping them continue their mission."

"Obi-Wan said you had always been a great pilot for as long as he knew you."

He heard a snorting sound come from his father's bed and soon decided it was laughter, which brought a grin to his own face. "What is so funny?"

"The thought of Obi-Wan praising my flying skills. He was usually white as a sheet when I was at the controls of anything."

"You two really were good friends weren't you?"

"Son, we were so much more than that. We were brothers in every way that matters. I loved Obi-Wan as much as I loved your mother, I suppose. It was different of course, but that doesn't change the depth of the emotion."

"Yet you killed him."

"An act I deeply regret now, no that isn't right. I've always regretted it, yet at the time I thought it was necessary, though by the Force I can't think why now. No that isn't true, the reason I thought it was necessary was because Palpatine thought it was necessary. I also thought that it would give me peace to have him dead, but it didn't. Your father has been a fool for many years, Luke, and for that I am truly sorry."

"So what happened? Why did you turn to the Dark Side?"

"You won't believe the answer to that question, son."

"Try me."

"Love. I turned to the dark side because of love."

"Love? Mother?"

"Your insight serves you well. Much better than mine has ever served me. A trait you no doubt inherited from your mother."

"Was she a Jedi as well? Obi-Wan never talked about her, and there never seemed to be time to ask him."

"Not surprising, since I imagine he only started training you shortly before I killed him on the Death Star."

"I've been in communication since then, but he only shows up during crises. I think it takes energy for him to manifest so he doesn't do it very often."

"He's learned to maintain his individuality after death?"

"Yes, I thought that was just the way it was."

"No, it isn't—it's very rare, in fact. Interesting, but back to your question, no your mother wasn't a Jedi. When I first met her she was Queen of Naboo. She was being escorted to Coruscant by Master Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan to plead Naboo's case before the Senate."

"The Trade Federation's blockade of Naboo? You're saying that my mother is Queen Amidala? Hero of Naboo?"

"She always hated that appellation, however well-earned it was. She just thought she was doing her job. Unfortunately for the rest of the galaxy, that victory came with a price."

"Palpatine's election to the chancellorship."

"You know your history. I'm impressed."

"Leia drilled it into my head. She believes that all recruits to the Alliance needs to know what we are really fighting for, and more so what we are really fighting against."

"She is wise beyond her years."

"So what happened that you felt you needed to turn to the dark side?"

"I have prophetic dreams, and thus far they have always come true."

"You had one about Mother?"

"Yes. I dreamed that she died in childbirth. I assume that actually happened, but not before you were born."

"Obi-Wan might be able to help with the details on that if he ever manifests again."

"Possible. However, I was panicked, your mother was my life and the day she told me about being pregnant was the happiest day of my life. It was also very scary."

"Because of the war?"

"That, and the fact that our marriage was forbidden."

"Forbidden?"

"Jedi were not allowed to marry. We were supposed to not form attachments. It was probably the most violated tenant of the Code."

"There were a lot of secretly married Jedi?"

"No, only one that I know of. He was also a friend, but most Jedi formed attachments to ideas, or planets most of all to other Jedi. It was ignored for the most part, but I don't think it should have been."

"Why not?"

"It reflected a failing in the Code. Any tenant that forces you to suppress an inherent part of yourself is flawed; forming attachments is a fundamental part of most sentient species, especially those that are space-faring. Building a technological society takes a great deal of cooperation, and cooperation is easiest if you care about those you are working with."

"That is terrible, Father."

"The Jedi weren't perfect, son. Yet, they were good people. They didn't deserve what I did to them."

"Before Master Yoda died he asked me to pass on what I had learned, but I don't know enough to do that. I've learned more about the old Order tonight than Master Yoda ever told me."

"He probably had his reasons. Yoda never did anything without a reason, nor did he neglect to do something without purpose."

"I always thought that he just had more important things to teach me and my running off didn't help."

"Trust me, son, nothing surprised the old gnome. He was over eight centuries old; you see a lot in that time. He was the wisest of us all, I think. He was just waiting for me to admit my mistakes to help me. One of the few errors in judgment he ever made."

Luke was quiet for a little while, contemplating. "I need to rebuild the Order, Father, but I don't even know where to begin."

"Do you intend to rebuild it as it was?"

"That was my intention, but I get the feeling you'd disapprove."

"You would be right. As I said the old Order had its faults, and I would hate to see you squander this opportunity."

"Opportunity?"

"Yes, the opportunity to remake the Order and make it better than it was."

"I never even considered that, I thought I'd spend many years just scouring the galaxy finding any scraps I could about it."

"You don't have to. I'll help you, Luke."

"Thank you, Father."

"In fact I have a suggestion where to start."

"Really? Where?

"You should take on a Padawan, and you have the perfect candidate in your sister."

"That would be difficult with her other duties, but I suppose it could be done."

"Luke, this cannot be done haphazardly. She will be your first Padawan. You are only just now a Knight. You cannot afford anything distracting her. If you train her in the manner you are suggesting the best outcome is she won't get trained at all, the worst…"

Luke shut his eyes, "I see what you mean, Father. Yoda told me when I first started training with him that becoming a Jedi was a serious commitment and only to be taken on with the most serious mind."

* * *

Leia walked in to the room that was shared by her brother and her father. She was starting to get a little nervous. The JAG officer was still of the opinion that they should let everyone know about their relationship, that it would come out eventually. Vader—Anakin—hadn't been particularly forceful in either direction, knowing, perhaps, that this revelation would affect them far more than it would affect him. Perhaps the idea that he was redeemed by the presence of his children was enough for him.

But perhaps not. For her anyway. She didn't shudder as she entered the room anymore. It was, in her book, an improvement. Still, once Luke was released, she didn't think she would be in here that much. "I'm getting released today," Luke told her happily, no preamble.

She smiled at him. "That's great, Luke. I thought that Doctor Eserina was going to keep you for a full week."

"She said I wasn't allowed to overdo it, but that if she didn't get me out of here, that I would be more of a pain than she wanted to deal with."

"So, when?"

"A couple of hours," Luke said. "I want to talk to you, though."

Luke was making puppy dog eyes at her. She sat down. "What about?"

"You remember what I said on Endor, about you being powerful with the Force?"

She nodded, remembering that horrible night. She had been sure that she'd never see him again. "Yes, I remember," she said, letting his serious mood take her as well.

"Have you thought about the implications?"

"Not really, with you and…Father in here and cleaning up the mess the Death Star made, I haven't had much time to think about much of anything."

"You should think about it, Leia," her father said.

"Why?"

"You could be a great Jedi, if you wanted," he replied.

"And I should take your word for this?" she asked dubiously.

"Leia…" Luke started but was cut off by their Father.

"It's alright Luke, she hasn't had the better part of a year to come to terms with the truth, she needs time, and she's more than earned it," Anakin said then turned back to Leia, "If you do not believe us, have one of the sadists here do a blood test."

Leia nearly chuckled at her father's attempt at a joke and asked, " A blood test for what?"

"A midi-chlorian count. I suspect you'll test beyond most equipment's ability to measure."

"I might," she agreed.

"As for becoming a Jedi, you do have the potential, if you want to dedicate yourself to it," he told her.

"I don't know if I can. We're at a crossroads with the Emperor dead. We are still at war and we really don't know what will happen in the Core; I'm needed to sway worlds to our side so if it comes to a protracted war we'll be able to win, though if possible I'd like to win without further bloodshed."

"Unfortunately, I think that wish is a bit…optimistic," Anakin said.

"I understand your concerns, Leia, but the Republic won't be truly restored until the Jedi Order is," Luke said.

"I know…but…it's a lot to think about. I appreciate what you are trying to do, and I'm honored you two think I'd be a good Jedi, but I have responsibilities. Mon Mothma needs me, the Alliance needs me."

"I understand, Leia. When Ben asked me to take up the ways of the Force I reacted very similarly. I just hope you have the opportunity to choose for yourself."

"I will think about it, Luke."

The JAG officer walked in then, Admiral Selestian. "Hello, all," he said pleasantly.

"Hello," Leia said, and her brother and father gave similar greetings.

"I need to talk to you about how we will inform the rest of the alliance. My thought is that the best way is a press conference. I know you are worried about the impact such a statement will have, but I've sent the paperwork for your father's defection over to Mon Mothma, and if it doesn't come out today, it will tomorrow. Anakin Skywalker isn't exactly an inconspicuous name to put on the front of something. And I tried to bury the personal stuff as far back as possible, but there's only so much that can be said about one person."

Leia swallowed. "I know I've been holding out," she admitted, "But you're right. We need to be able to put as positive a light on this as we can."

"So you agree to come and speak at a press conference in the morning?" she nodded. "I'll get it set up as soon as I can. Do you think that Doctor Eserina will let me hold it on the _Mercy _so that we can get Luke on as well?"

"They should be releasing me in a few hours, so I should be able to attend it wherever it is."

"Ah, congratulations. I'd still do it here if I could, but I don't think that anyone could convince her to let me put your father on camera."

Leia shook her head. "Probably not."

"She was in here last night madder than a Dantari fire ant about some idiot named Horm. I believe you had something to say about him before?" Anakin interjected.

"Yes. What did she say?" Admiral Selestian asked.

"She said he had an arrest warrant for Vader, and she told him there was no Vader here. Seemed quite pleased with herself, too."

"It's a good thing we got that warrant nullified this morning, then. He's going to be a serious problem, I fear."

"She's not going to be in any trouble, is she?" Luke asked.

"No, technically, she doesn't have to cooperate with him at all in the first place. He's not a member of the Alliance Executive Branch, as much as he tries to make himself appear to be. Besides, she didn't lie to him; Vader does not exist as a legal entity. If he had asked her to give Anakin Skywalker to the authorities, then she might be in trouble. In any event, it shouldn't matter now, with the warrant he was trying to serve having been revoked."

"So what will happen if they try to serve it again?"

"Well, if they have everything in order, she will probably double check the system, and since it's been revoked, will have the authority to tell him to go shove it up his exhaust pipe."

Leia giggled at that. "So there shouldn't be any further problems?"

"Hopefully no, but your father is a very reviled man in the Alliance. I don't know if we will have a problem or not," he said, then after a pause, "Well, I had better get going if I am going to get that press conference started. is three o'clock going to be an acceptable time for you?"

The twins nodded together, and with that, Admiral Selestian left. "I have a bad feeling about this."

* * *

"Thank you for seeing me on such short notice, Madam President," Luke Skywalker said, he was dressed in simple light colored trousers and a complementary tunic, over that was a loose robe. Mon Mothma had to remember to breathe when she saw him, for he looked every centimeter a Jedi.

"It is a pleasure, Commander Skywalker. Or should I call you Master Skywalker?"

Luke allowed a small smile, "My title as of right now would be Knight Skywalker, but I'd really rather be called Luke."

"Very well Luke, and don't worry about the short notice, I always have time for the last of the Jedi."

"Actually, I would prefer to think of myself as the first Jedi of the…forgive me I was about to say New Order."

Mon Mothma chuckled, "You might want to think of another way of putting that, but you seem to have caught yourself."

"I'll think of something. I wanted to talk to you about just how involved the New Republic is going to be with the new Jedi Order I intend to build."

"You sound like you'll find enough people to train in the ways of the Force to make it an actual Order."

"Since Palpatine's death and my Father's renunciation of the Dark Side I feel as if a very heavy, dark cloth as been pulled from the Force. While I wish I had Master's Kenobi and Yoda to consult on this matter, I don't. However I have a sense that I will be nearly overrun with potential Jedi very soon. As such, I will need help training them all. My father as agreed to advise me, but due to his injuries, both physical and spiritual, it will be sometime before he will be ready to take on the mantle of a Jedi once again."

"So what do you need from the New Republic?"

"My sister. I feel that she wants to train to be a Jedi, but she's conflicted. She feels she would be abandoning her responsibilities to allow me to train her."

"And such training could not be worked around her schedule?"

"No, to be a Jedi takes a whole commitment, anything less risks disaster."

"You managed it."

"With all due respect, Madam President, no I didn't. I spent six months on a planet called Dagobah being trained by Master Yoda, and even then I cut my training short because I felt Han and Leia were in danger. Then I spent an additional three months on Tatooine training and preparing to rescue Han from Jabba the Hutt."

"I see. It would be difficult to do without her, but I think it would be even more difficult to rebuild the galaxy without the Jedi. What would you need to be provided for this task?"

"Nothing more than I currently have at the moment, Madam President. I'm in the process of going through the old Jedi Code with my father and figuring out what parts work and which parts contributed to the fall of the Order. It is slow going."

"I should think so. I will speak to Leia about this, I won't make any promises that you'll have her, that must be her decision, but I will let her know that I will fully endorse whatever path she chooses."

"That is all I ask, Madam President," he stood and bowed. "May the Force be with you."

"And with you Knight Skywalker."

* * *

Later that morning, Mon Mothma's door opened to reveal Princess Leia. Mon Mothma looked up as she entered, and thought, not for the first time, just how much she reminded her of Padmé. She sighed and put that thought away, before she could wonder what a child of hers would've been like. It had been a shame that she had died so young.

"You wanted to see me?" Leia asked.

"Yes, dear. I did. Your brother came by to see me today."

"He did, did he?" Leia said, looking just a little put out by that news.

"Yes, he seemed to think that your concern for the Alliance was giving you pause in taking up the way of the Jedi. I wanted to know if this was a correct assumption on his part?"

"Yes, Madam President, it is a concern. I had hoped to be able to learn slowly in the ways of the Force, as my duties permitted. Luke seems to think this is a bad idea."

"So if you were free of your duties to the Alliance you'd happily study with Luke?"

"I don't know if I would say happily. I haven't had much of a chance to think about it, either way."

"Are you saying you wouldn't want to be a Jedi?"

"No, I'm not saying that. I think what my problem is, is the fact that I don't really know what being a Jedi is like. Luke has such a haunted look to him, and I don't know if I'm strong enough to enter into the crucible he went through."

"This would be my question: is the haunted look he has, and yes, I know what you are talking about, is that more from what he experienced learning to be a Jedi, or more from the horrors he's seen from this damnable war?"

"I guess I never considered that."

"What else do you notice about your brother now?"

"He seems to be at peace, he's calm. Not the overexcited farmboy that broke me out of the Death Star's cell block, certainly."

"Now what do you think gave him those qualities?"

"I don't know."

"Than I suggest you ask him. I don't want you to dismiss this out of hand though."

"I'm not!"

"You were trying to," she chided. "I understand the contribution you make to the Alliance, Leia. And honestly I think it'll take about fifteen people to replace you," Leia began to speak, forcing Mon Mothma to raise her hand. "However, I want you to consider this, while replacing you would require fifteen people, we have the personnel to do so. As of this moment we have exactly one Jedi Knight and a worse-for-wear former Sith Lord, and most people won't believe the former part for quite some time to come. The old Republic had many, many faults. However I do not believe the Jedi were one of them. We need a moral compass. Someone to tell us when we are going astray, and to help us find our path again, the Jedi can do this. If you decide to follow that path, you will have my full support. If you do not choose to follow it, you will have my full support. I love you like the daughter I've never had, Leia, and I want to see you happy."

* * *

Leia was confused, and it was hard for her to pin down her emotions, her thoughts and put them into some sort of coherence. She felt the duty that had been her companion since she was a very young girl coming into play. She should go train with her brother to be a Jedi. Her brother. It still was a little surreal that he was actually her flesh and blood brother. She'd thought of him as a brother for a long time, but to actually have it manifest as truth was rather scary. Duty also said that she needed to give Anakin a chance. He had seen the light, so to speak, and was trying desperately to reform and make amends for his actions as a Sith. Force, even she could feel the changes within him. He deserved at least to talk to her, and he was a unique link to her past, one that could offer insight into the formation of the Empire, not to mention the more personal aspects of the history he held inside his head. She wondered how hard it was going to be to get him to talk about their mother. Both of them were eager to find out more about her, and anytime she came up in conversation, Anakin had shied away from the topic like a fresh wound barely scabbed over. He was acting as badly as Luke had after he'd had his hand cut off. When she'd finally gotten out of him the truth about what had happened, she had been horrified for him. Darth Vader was his father. Horror had been about the only appropriate emotion in her mind.

Now the same thing was happening to her. Darth Vader, newly redeemed, was _her_ father. She didn't even know if she had feelings about that yet. Her world, usually a steady, even thing had been rocked by revelations that she didn't know if she could handle abandoning the thing she loved most so that she could be the thing she feared. Could she be a Jedi? and could she do it without falling prey to the darkness that had consumed their father? She sighed, there was only one way to really find out, and that was to ask questions, lots of questions.

It didn't take her long to find her brother, she found him in a common area sitting cross-legged on a cushion, his eyes were closed and his breathing slow, only the fact he was still upright betrayed the fact that he was awake. She watched him for several minutes wondering how he could stay so perfectly still especially with the Rogues whooping it up in a lively sabacc game.

"Sit down, Leia," Luke said, his eyes still closed. She hadn't expected him to speak and it caused her to jump a little. A cushion floated from the couch and settled down in front of him. She sat down on it like he was and realized that she wouldn't be able to stay there for long, she knew her legs would start falling asleep in minutes. She sat there for about a minute before deciding to shift. She ended up with her knees bent in front of her.

"I hope I'm not disturbing you," she said when she had finally decided he wasn't going to say anything else.

"You aren't, you have questions for me. Ask them."

"What is it like being a Jedi?" she blurted, the truly most pressing question on her mind.

"That is a question that is not easy to answer. How would you answer what is it like to be a woman? Or what is it like to be raised on Alderaan. There is much you can say on either subject, but you'll never feel like you did it justice. It is the same with being a Jedi. However I can try to answer your question. First though, tell me what you think you know."

"I know you can touch the Force, and you can do things with it, such as when you moved the pillow. I know it aids you when you fight, helps you anticipate attacks, allows you to move faster. All of this I've seen, but I just feel like there is so much more that I'm not seeing."

"Then you are wiser than most. Being a Jedi is about being one with the Force, to understand the Jedi you have to understand the Force."

"If I understood the Force wouldn't that make me a Jedi?" she asked drily.

Luke chuckled, "Very astute, Leia. The Force is like a pool of water, when you first encounter it you see yourself, then you realize there's more beneath your reflection and you can see hints of what is at the bottom. Then you put your hand in and discover it has substance. As you study it more you find that you can take it with you. If you drink it, you find that it refreshes you, strengthens you. Then you find you can do work with it under the right circumstances. The analogy breaks down after a while, however."

"What does it feel like?"

"That is something I cannot answer. Everyone experiences the Force in their own way, much as everyone experiences life in their own way. Show a play to a group of people and ask them about it you'd have as many unique accounts as beings in the audience. Some would be very shallow and a basic synopsis of the plot, others would talk about the costuming, still others would talk about the mechanics of the stage operation or the acting. The thing a Jedi needs to know is whatever they say about the play, they are right, because it is how they perceived it, and our perceptions make our reality."

"What about the Dark Side?"

"The Dark Side is something that is in all of us. Just because we are Darth Vader's offspring doesn't mean we are any more prone to falling than anyone else. Indeed had we been Obi-Wan's children instead we'd be no more insulated from the Dark Side. It is something that everyone has and it is something that everyone has to conquer for themselves."

"Why did he fall?"

"I asked him about that myself. He told me what happened, but I think you'd get more from his story if he told you himself. Especially if you were able to open up to the Force during the telling."

"I don't know if I could ask him, Luke."

"If you choose to walk the path of the Jedi you will have to face those fears, Leia. Once you do, you'll truly be grateful. I know I was. Passing that test though was the hardest things I ever had to do, and indeed I failed it once. I can only hope next time I face it I do as well as this last time."

"You expect to be tested again? By whom? You said Master Yoda had died."

A small smile creeped up on her brother's face, "So I did, and yes he did. However he never administered any tests. The test is life and what we do with it, and that test never ends whether or not you are a Jedi."

Leia nodded, "How do you sit still like that with those maniacs carrying on like that?"

"It is both easier and harder than it looks. Tuning out the noise is easy, tuning down my desire to be with them, that is hard."

"Then why do this here?"

"To stretch myself. Constant improvement should be the goal of any Jedi. The training never ends. No matter what rank you gain there is always more to learn, always room for improvement."

"Ok…that helps. I have to think on what you've told me. Thank you."

"You don't need to thank me. I'm happy to talk to you about this or anything else that is on your mind."

She gave him a hug and got up, she headed for the door and turned, Luke was still in the same pose. She shook her head and left her brother to his meditation.

* * *

Han found Leia in her office, it was getting late and it seemed she was going to work through the night, again. Well, he had an opinion about that. The fact that he had her brother backing him on this helped.

"Hey, sweetheart!"

"Han, hello. I'm a bit busy right now, but have a seat," she said.

"No, you are going to come with me and have a decent dinner and get a decent night's sleep," he said.

"I will, as soon as I'm done with this."

"No, if I don't pull you away from what ever crisis is happening now you'll just get sucked into another. You need to take care of yourself. Which means eating and sleeping."

"Han, I appreciate your concern but…"

"When did you last eat?"

"Huh? It was….lunch…no, I know I've eaten something today."

"That's what I thought. Come on, or do I have to get Chewie in here to carry you to the mess hall?"

"He wouldn't, he's too scared of me," she said with a tired chuckle.

"No, he's not, he just likes you."

"No, I scare him," she replied definitively.

"We'll discuss it over dinner, now come on. No one's going to die if you aren't in here for the next twelve hours."

"You sure about that?" she asked, but she wasn't fighting very hard, he could tell.

"Positive."

"Ok…you win. But you're buying, flyboy."

"Oh…Princess, that is low. They don't pay me much you know."

"A General's salary isn't enough to feed me?"

"It's not you I'm worried about, it's the Wookiee."

* * *

Leia walked up to the door outside the press conference. Luke was waiting for her, and Han squeezed her hand for luck before heading off to the main part of the room so that she would be able to see him in the sea of likely hostile reporters. She didn't know yet. All the reporters knew was that they were going to be receiving information about Darth Vader, or Anakin Skywalker. "Come on," Luke said, "It's time."

She nodded, gathering her courage, taking his hand, and they walked through the door. There were twenty or so reporters in the conference room, looking confused at the appearance of the two heroes in the alliance. Admiral Selestian walked into the room from the other side. "Thank you, gentlebeings, for coming to this announcement. I understand that you are probably very anxious to know more about my client, who you know as Darth Vader. He has given up that appellation in favor of an older one, his birth name, and since his defection has been accepted by the Alliance, he has directed me to speak on his behalf. My client's name is Anakin Skywalker. I know that there are some of you, probably most of you, who will recognize that name and all of the deeds and exploits that go with that name.

"I will not extol those virtues or vices. I'm sure that you can look them up, and make your own judgments about what he has done. I am here to announce that there are other members of the Skywalker family who wish to make themselves know to the other members of the alliance. I am sure you all know Luke Skywalker," he said, indicating the young Jedi Knight. Luke stepped forward.

"Thank you," Luke said to the Admiral. "I want to let you all know that I support my father's defection, and that I am proud that he was finally able to make the decisions that have brought us here today, including the killing of the Emperor. The Empire's loss is our gain. They are without leadership now, and we must act quickly to take advantage of the opportunity that Father has given us. I understand that some of you will have concerns that this is some sort of ploy by Darth Vader to take out the Alliance, or something equally heinous. I assure you that this is not the case. Recently I have discovered that I have a sister. That outstanding young woman is here with us today. My twin sister, Leia Organa, has a few words to say."

Leia was suddenly nervous, when she hadn't been nervous about speaking publically since the day she was presented to the Emperor. "Thank you," she said, low, only for Luke's ears, and he squeezed her hand as she stood before the assembled press. "Thank you," she said more loudly. "I have been very busy the last few days, aiding the relief efforts on the forest moon below us, along with my regular duties, and, of course, visiting Luke and our father onboard the _Mercy. _It was only just before the destruction of the second _Death Star_ that Luke informed me that he had discovered our relationship. I haven't had nearly the time I feel I need to talk to Anakin about the many things I want to know. I trust Luke's judgment about our father, and I have seen for myself, he has changed. I do not believe him to be the monster that he was before he saved my brother's life."

She might have said more, but she was just so overcome with emotion that she couldn't continue. Luke came to her then, and Admiral Selestian came up to the front as well. "Are there any questions?"

"Is this legal? Vader is the de facto leader of the Empire if the Emperor is dead, isn't he? Shouldn't he be surrendering?" one of the reporters asked after the Admiral pointed him out.

"My understanding is that there is not a clear line of succession from the Emperor. Even if Anakin Skywalker were to surrender, as you are suggesting, that will not mean an end to the conflict. Anakin doesn't have the same sway over the Empire as the Emperor did, so defection is a much more appropriate course of action, and he will be treated the same as any other high-level Imperial officer who has decided that he's working for the wrong side," Admiral Selestian answered.

"Are there going to be any trials about the atrocities that the Empire committed?" asked another reporter.

"There will not be any trials for Anakin Skywalker based on his actions under the Empire. This is standard procedures during a defection," the Admiral said.

"So, what rules are being used for his defection? What basis are you using for this?" a third reporter asked.

"The rules we are using have been in place since the very beginning of the Rebellion. We do not turn someone away because of the atrocities that they have seen and done in the Empire. We give everyone a clean slate, start him or her fresh. These rules were put into place after the Battle of Yavin. At the time, as you know, we were mostly a military organization. Now that we are more of a political organization, I understand how you would be curious about that. Most of our defectors at that time were military personnel who were outraged at the destruction of Alderaan. The reasons that Anakin came here were a bit more personal than that, but we are still glad to have him. He is going to be invaluable for the remainder of the war against the Empire," Admiral Selestian answered.

"Wait, the Emperor is dead, doesn't that mean we've won?" asked yet another reporter.

"The simple fact is that the Empire still has a lot of ships out there, with a number of commanders who are used to having a lot of autonomy. Just because the Emperor is dead, doesn't mean that there will be joy in everyone's heart and they will gratefully hand us the keys to their city," Admiral Selestian said, then called on another reporter

"How did you find out that Darth Vader was your father?"

"He told me," Luke answered.

"Why do you believe him?" asked a different reporter without being called.

"The Force lets me know that he is telling the truth," Luke said.

"Is Darth Vader going to be a Jedi again?" asked a different reporter.

"My father has been seriously injured, and he wishes to heal his body before taking up any physical demands, and being a Jedi is a very physical demand," Luke told them.

"Thank you, gentlebeings of the press, for your time. That is all that we will have time for today. We need to let the Princess and Commander Skywalker resume their duties," The Admiral said, and as Luke and Leia turned to leave, the press began to disband as well.

* * *

Threkin Horm was absolutely livid as he watched the announcement. The prerelease had said that the press conference was about Anakin Skywalker, and the name had sounded familiar. He had turned it on for something to do while he waited for his aide and several others to arrive for a strategy meeting about what to do about Darth Vader, since the head of the _Mercy_ didn't want to let him in. The announcement of the press conference had been something of a surprise, and he almost wished that he hadn't caught it, it made him angrier every moment that he thought about it.

Over the course of the press conference, the people he was supposed to be meeting with had come in. "That underhanded traitorous weasel!" he said as he turned to face his inner circle.

"Sir, as I mentioned to you the last time that we met," Les Yevin started, "We will probably be able to get an injunction of some sort against this. Several judges in the Alliance are sympathetic to our cause. I've approached the subject with one, and got a positive response. He is probably who we will go to initially, but I've researched and thought carefully about who we could get to support us, in the case that the reasons he is so sympathetic is thought to be too detrimental to his judgment."

"What is the reason?"

"His daughter was visiting Alderaan at the time that it was blown to bits. It's not commonly known, and happened before he was part of the Alliance, and he doesn't have any other family that anyone knows about."

"Would he see it as a conflict of interest?"

Les shook his head. "He has never recused himself from anything that I've ever heard about. He is not really talkative to anyone."

"So, this sounds perfect. See if you can get him to agree to a preliminary hearing on tomorrow's docket. What else do we have?"

"Since we have the name that Vader is being listed under, we can attempt to arrest him again," Deeter Asym, his personal aide suggested.

"Good. What else?"

"I can help with the research into what we can charge Vader with, as well as what we can pull from the Anakin Skywalker files, and what will be helpful from there," Rankeral As'her'eas said.

"Alright."

"Propaganda," Van Kerstat said.

"What kind of propaganda?"

"Well, we need to link the names Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader in the public mind, hopefully in a negative way. We need people to think that Anakin Skywalker was just as evil as Darth Vader. I will see what we can dig up on that end. As I recall, Skywalker was a very reckless sort of Jedi."

"Alright, then," Horm said. "We have a plan of action. Deeter, I want you to get things arranged so that I can go serve this warrant again. Is there anything else that we need to address?"

A murmur of no's and shakes of head made Horm smile. "Let's get to it, then."


	5. Leia

**AN:Nothing much to say tonight, so on with the Chapter!**

* * *

Luke sat cross-legged on the bed that had been his before his discharge from the tender care of the _Mercy_. His father was eating lunch, Artoo was there, and had not left Anakin's side since he had started remaining conscious. They had been working on what practices to keep from the old order. Now they were taking a break as Anakin's meal, if you could call it food, arrived. "I really could use a nerf burger. There used to be this place on Coruscant run by a Besalisk named Dexter. The place was more of a dive than anything, but it had the BEST food I've ever eaten. Obi-Wan and Dexter were good friends," Anakin said as he spooned the bland liquid into his mouth. It had been a long time since he'd eaten food of any kind that the doctor decided to reintroduce his digestive system to the process slowly. Thus far it had gone well without any gastrointestinal rebellion.

"Ben never told me about that, of course we really didn't have time for him to reminisce," Luke said.

"He may not have wanted to," his father said.

"Possibly. The only thing he told me about you before he died was that you were a great pilot, a cunning warrior, and a good friend," Luke said.

"Not so much on the latter at the end."

"I think he blamed himself more than you. I think he felt he should've seen the problems you were having and did more to help, at least that's the idea I got when I last talked to him on Degobah."

"Perhaps. I do not have much to be proud of, in my life, Luke."

"We all make mistakes, Father."

"True, but most people's mistakes don't result in the deaths of thousands," Anakin said bitterly.

"You can't spend the rest of your life with that attitude, Father. And you must forgive yourself if you expect others to be able to."

"What if I don't want their forgiveness?"

"For yourself? That's entirely up to you, but you also have to realize that everything that you do affects both of us, as well."

Anakin frowned, not liking where Luke was taking this particular ship. "You are attempting to manipulate me."

"I am reminding you of the duty you have to your family, one you willingly took up again when you declared to me that you were my father on Bespin."

"You've inherited your mother's talents, Luke. You win. I will stop reliving my past mistakes, and endeavor to live in the present."

"Do, or do not, there is no try."

"And the boy quotes Yoda to me! I knew the little gnome lived," Anakin said.

"You're trying to change the subject Father," Luke said.

"So I am, and it works as well on you as it did your mother."

"At least you admit it. I know this is a difficult time for you," Luke said, not without sympathy.

"No, son...you only have a shadow of a shadow of an idea of how hard this is."

"Tell me."

"Oh, so the boy thinks he's a mind healer now?"

"No, just interested. You need to live in the here and now, not in the past," Luke said.

"I didn't know I had Qui-Gon for a son."

"Don't think you can bait me by name-dropping Father. We are going to finish this conversation."

"Your mother would be very proud of you. She was the only other one as capable of putting me in my place." Luke just sat there, looking entirely too serene. "Ok...ok....you win...I will do my best to live in the moment."

* * *

* * *

* * *

Horm fumed in his quarters after that press conference. That traitorous bitch...to think that the House of Organa took in the bastard daughter of the most feared being in the Galaxy. It was a stain on the honor of the Royal House. Now she was using that usurped authority to DEFEND him! How DARE she continue to call herself Alderaanian?

He moved his hoverchair to the back room. In there was a hospital bed with the latest medical equipment.

"I regret to inform you, sir that there has still been no change," said the medical droid that he had purchased to watch over the form in the bed.

" I know...she has been locked in this nightmare for a long time now. Please close down for half an hour. I want some privacy with my daughter," he said.

"As you wish sir," the medical droid said and the lights in its eyes went out.

"Alyyssa...I swear I will make that monster pay for everything, the destruction of our home...the pain I know you are in. As I've told you they've caught him. They caught Vader, but they aren't going to punish him as he deserves. No...they are honoring him as a hero! Its wrong...my precious...wrong that your tormentor, the reason you are not awake is going to get away with it. I won't let them...no...he will pay. Him and his bastard children!"

* * *

* * *

* * *

"I want to thank you," Leia said to Han. He had once again drug her away from the office, and they had retired to her rooms for the moment.

"For what?" Han asked.

"For understanding and being patient with all of this," she replied.

"Oh, that? You're welcome. How's tall, pale and broody doing anyway?"

"Grumpy. I don't think he cares for the medical profession very much at all," Leia said.

"If the ten percent I understood of the Doc's rant is any indication I can't say I blame him," Han said.

"True," she shuddered in remembered horror of what had been done to Va...her father.

"How are you holding up?"

"Probably a bit better than expected. I still don't have the whole story on just WHAT happened to him to turn him into the monster he was, or more important how once he was that how he could turn back. I guess I'm still getting used to the paradox that he is."

"Whoa, that's a bit introspective for you," Han said.

Leia chuckled and said, "Blame my brother. There's something about talking about Jedi philosophy that makes you introspective."

"Are you going to let him train you to be a Jedi?"

"I haven't decided yet and Luke hasn't been pressuring me at all."

"You don't sound happy about that," Han said.

"I don't know what to think about it. Part of me wants him to stress how important this is...I guess...I don't know."

"You've never had a problem making decisions before, in fact most of the time you tend to just take charge, like a time I remember in the Death Star's detention level."

"It wasn't my fault that my rescuers were incompetent," she teased.

"Blame your brother, sweetheart, it was HIS plan."

"So you keep saying," Leia said.

"Besides I'm not the only one deficient in rescuing skills," Han teased back.

"Oh really?"

"Yeah...I seem to remember you not being quite able to pull it off in Jabba's Palace, and to top it off since I was blind the whole time I never got to see you in the outfit Jabba had you in. According to Lando it looked good on you, what little of it there was."

"Ohhh...the poor General didn't get to see Jabba's little peep show?" she said, raising her voice an octave higher than normal, and patting his cheek.

"Nope, and knowing Jabba's taste in female attire I'm REALLY sorry I missed it."

"You poor thing...it's a good thing I kept it then," she said causing a lopsided grin to appear on his face.

* * *

* * *

* * *

Lando was putting the final connections of the new sensor array to the _Falcon._ Maybe THIS time it would work.

"Han, just WHAT have you been doing to her?"

"Making improvements, buddy," Han said, sounding way too happy for the number of problems they'd been having.

Lando smiled realizing the reason for his friend's good mood, "So I take it things between you and the Princess are going well?"

"A gentleman never kisses and tells, you should know that," Han said with a smirk.

"And since when have you been a gentleman?" Lando asked.

"Since they made me an officer. Officers are supposed to be gentlemen," Han said.

Lando laughed then said, "Ok, so things are going well with Leia, what about the in laws?"

"You've seen the press conference then?" Han asked.

"Yeah...how does it feel to be dating Daddy Vader's little girl?"

"I try not to think about it. Much easier to think of her as Leia first, Luke's sister second and his daughter a distant third."

"How distant a third?"

"I was thinking out by Kamino," Han said causing Lando to nearly fall over with laughter.

"At least you still have your sense of humor," Lando said after he recovered.

"There we go," Han said as the last connection was made, he reached to his comlink and said, "Ok Chewie, let's try it out."

Status lights came on and shifted to green and held steady. "Ok...looks like we've got it," Lando said. Then the status lights went amber then red. Sparks started spraying everywhere.

"Turn it off Chewie! Turn it off!" Han screamed into the comlink as a spark landed on Lando's shirt catching it on fire.

"Yikes!" Lando shouted taking off the shirt and tossing it away, the sudden free access to the air caused the shirt to vanish in flash of flame and smoke.

"Whoa...you ok?" Han asked.

"Yeah...remind me never to work in synthsilk ever again," Lando said.

"Sure thing. Looks like we're back to square one," Han said, examining the now destroyed equipment. "Or make that square zero."

"That bad?" Lando asked peering over the open hatch and made a disgusted sound when he saw the mess, "Not good, buddy, let's get to work."

* * *

* * *

* * *

Mon Mothma looked across the conference table at her two best Generals and and to admit that they didn't necessarily look like much. She shook her head at how looks could be deceiving, and at how much of her time since the Battle of Endor the Skywalkers had been occupying. Not that it was their fault, they'd tried to keep the family situation within the family, but as such things did, this had been out of their hands from practically the beginning. "I need your help, gentlemen," she said finally.

"Whatever you need, Madame President," Solo told her, and Calrissian nodded his agreement to the statement.

"I need someone to go to Coruscant--Imperial Center--and assess the situation there."

"You want us to do that?"

"If you don't mind. I realize that both of you have other things you could be doing. General Calrissian, you have the running of Cloud City, and General Solo, you must still be in the middle of sorting through the situation with Leia's father. I need someone I can trust both to come back and to bring back reliable information, and I feel that the two of you are best suited to do both."

"When will you want us to leave?" Solo asked after a long glance at Calrissian.

"Soon. Tomorrow if you can manage it," she said, sitting back in her chair. "Can I count on you?"

"I'll double check with Leia, but it shouldn't be a problem," Solo said after he'd considered for a moment.

"I don't know how much help I'll be, but I can go along," Calrissian agreed.

"You can bring whomever you think you'll need, but please be mindful of the political considerations of any people who you would take. I will leave it to your discretion."

"Does that mean I can't take Luke and Leia?" Solo asked.

"Unfortunately, most likely," she told him, not without sympathy.

He nodded. "I could see that situation getting out of hand really quickly."

* * *

* * *

* * *

Leia was sitting in her office, half her mind on the work in front of her, half of it on the idea of training as a Jedi full time to become a full-time Jedi. That part was only implied, but it sounded like the most reasonable idea. If she was going to put the effort into training as a Jedi, then she needed to follow through with it and put that training to use. Which meant that if she gave up her position in the alliance, she would be giving that position up for good.

That was what was really holding her back, right now, was the idea of giving up everything that she'd known for something she knew very little about. Her brother had suggested she talk to their father about what had happened, and she was starting to warm up to the idea. But she needed to get through this backlog of work first. Or did she? Mon Mothma had told her that she could afford the people to replace her. She bit her lip, thinking about it. Perhaps she could extend that to her decision-making process.

"Alright, alright," she heard Han say to someone outside the office, her secretary, probably. "This won't take long."

"Can I help you?"

"Yeah, you can come to lunch with me."

"And why would I do that?"

"Because, this is the last time you're going to see me for a while, well, that and tonight, if I can pry you away from the office long enough."

"Why?"

"I guess I'm Madame President's go-to guy, with you and Luke having to deal with the whole family thing."

She sighed, really not liking the idea of having Han out of reach right now, not when she needed as much emotional support as possible. But she couldn't deny that Mon Mothma knew that and wouldn't take him away without a good reason. "Where are you going?"

"Coruscant."

"Why ever for?"

"Assess the situation, gather intel and come home. Shouldn't be gone more than a week."

"Just remember the coming home part is the most important one."

"That's why she's sending me. She doesn't trust anyone else to come back."

Leia nodded. "Alright. I was just thinking that I might take Mon Mothma up on her offer to replace me, so that I could have time to think, decide. Find out what I need to know before I get into the Jedi thing with Luke."

"Let's go tell her then."

* * *

* * *

* * *

Leia was sitting with Han in the cockpit of the _Falcon, _heading over to the _Mercy _again. It had been easier than she thought it would, telling Mon Mothma that she needed time to find out more about the Jedi before she made the decision to join her brother as a Jedi. It rather had the feeling of inevitability, that she would eventually agree to training as a Jedi with Luke, but she wasn't entirely sure that she wanted to feel that way. But for now, she wanted to spend time with her brother, and though part of her still resented the thought, her father.

Her brother, on the other hand, wanted to spend time with their father while he had the chance. He'd told her that they would be very busy soon, and that there wouldn't be as much time. They signed in and went to Anakin's room only to find the doctor there talking to him.

"...its going to be painful at first, we are after all doing MORE damage initially," Doctor Eserina was saying.

"Pain is irrelevant to me, Doctor. I want to be free once more. Until you undo what Palpatine did to me I won't be," Anakin responded.

"Ok, you're the patient. When do you wish to start?" she asked.

"As soon as possible," he said simply.

"Very well, we'll get it scheduled," the doctor said, and bid her farewells and left.

"What was that about?" Han asked.

"My lungs, General. Doctor Eserina believes that the rest of the considerable repair work my body needs will be easier if I have functioning lungs," Anakin said.

"Wow, not throwing me out this time?" Han said.

"You seem to be close to my children, General, it is out of respect to them that you get to stay. For myself, other than that unfortunate business on Bespin, you are a stranger to me," Anakin said, then turned to Leia. "It is good to see you, Leia."

"I wish I could say the same and truly mean it, Father. However, seeing you IS more agreeable than it has been at certain points in the past," Leia said with a grimace.

Anakin chuckled a little and said, "Better than you wanting to kill me I suppose. Since you aren't here for the social grace of your broken father I can guess you are here either with news or for Luke."

"A little of both I'm afraid," Leia responded.

"So what is going on?" Luke asked.

"Lando and I are going to Coruscant to see how the Capital is reacting to the Emperor's death. The news should have gotten there by the time we arrive. I doubt it'll be public knowledge, but we'll be able to see how the military is reacting," Han said.

"Security will be tight if word of Palpatine's death has reached the Capital," Anakin said.

"True enough, got any tips to get us in and out?" Han asked.

"I assume you'll be taking the _Millennium Falcon_?" Anakin asked.

"That was the plan," Han asked, cautious for any insult to his beloved ship.

"With her fitted for smuggling, she should be sufficient to get in without causing a response. Getting out will depend on just how much noise you make while you are there," Anakin said.

"We weren't planning on making any, this is strictly recon," Han said.

"Then you should have no problems. I will load all of my personal access codes into Artoo. He'll allow you to access everything you'll need without tripping any alarms. I would recomend that you get Palpatine's watch lists. There are three of them," he said then was interupted by a coughing fit.

"What's on them?" Han asked, once Anakin stopped coughing.

"The first two are lists of potential traitors, the first one is a list that is being watched for defection, the second for possibly leading a coup against Palpatine. I would think you would find useful recruits on the first list, the second list, those are people that will try to make themselves Emperor. They most likly will need to be eliminated," Vader paused a moment, "The third list is all of the known Force Sensitives currently in the Core Worlds."

Luke let out a low whistle, "That information will be invaluable, Father."

"We have to get those lists," Leia said.

"The codes I'm putting into Artoo will give you access to them, they are probably the most important pieces of intelligence you'll find on Coruscant. Luke, since I will be unconcious most of the next two weeks I think you should accompany the General. There shouldn't be much beyond General Solo's skills to deal with as far as the specific goal of the mission, but I want you to retrieve something from the Jedi Temple," Anakin said.

"What is it Father?"

"The Great Holocron. It will be of great use to us in rebuilding the Order."

"Wouldn't Palpatine have moved it?" Leia asked.

"Wby would he when he and I are the only two beings that were allowed access to the Temple?" Anakin asked.

"So its guarded, what kind of security is there?" Luke asked.

"A battalion of Stormtroopers keep watch on it. However there are several secret ways into the Temple. They were most useful for a curious nine year old from a dustball world," Anakin said with what Leia could swore was a mischeivious smirk on his face.

"Ok, Leia might as well go as well then, it will give her a chance to ask the questions she has," Luke said.

"I agree, it will also do her good to get away from the political backlash my defection has caused. I doubt any movement on that will happen with me being under the good Doctor's tender ministrations."

"So it's settled then, all of us will go. Lando, Chewie and I will get the lists and Luke and Leia get this Holocron thing from the Temple. One more thing, just where are these lists stored?" Han asked.

"Forgive me for lapsing on that. The lists are kept on Palpatine's private terminal, in the Palace."

"Gee....thanks for that, Dad."

"You are not a member of my family, General...yet," Anakin said.

"Ahem...ok...that still leaves me wondering how I'm going to get in to the Imperial Palace, even when the Emperor is off world security is tight," Han said, his face going a shade redder. Leia hid a small grin at his discomfort.

"True, but the Palace used to be the Senate building and I know a few secret enterences in, they proved...useful from time to time."

"Why would you need to know secret ways into the Senate building?" Leia asked.

"Let's just say your mother sometimes felt....adventurous and took extended lunches with me in her office," Anakin said, and Leia could SWEAR she saw his pale cheeks redden slightly.

"Adventurous, huh?" Leia asked.

"Your mother was a remarkable woman. I truly regret you did not get to know her." Anakin said, laying his head back. "You have preperations to make. I'll have Artoo ready by the time you are ready to go. For now I think I wish to meditate."

"Of course, Father," Luke said, standing up and the three of them left the former Jedi to his thoughts.

* * *

* * *

* * *

Luke put the last bag into the storage compartment. His sister tended to pack surprisingly light, due to her long time working for the Alliance in various roles. He also packed lightly for about the same reason, so putting five people onto the Falcon wasn't as difficult as it would have been if it had been a different five people. Of course, they weren't planning on carrying any cargo either to or from Coruscant, so they could have brought the entire wardrobe that Senator Amidala was rumored to have.

He sighed, and shook off idle thoughts, heading to the common room where he knew his sister to be. "Hey."

"Hi. How are you feeling about this?"

"Going to Coruscant while our father undergoes dangerous medical procedures and the Alliance moves our base of operations closer to the Core?"

"Well, yes."

"Things could be worse," Luke said with a shrug. "I think Father is underestimating the amount of flack that can be generated in our direction in two weeks, but I also think he's right that there's very little we could do about it even if we were here. Additionally, we have the leadership of the Alliance backing us, keeping a lid on things for us, to an extent. The Force will be with us."

"Which brings us to the REAL reason we are going with Han."

"Yes, it will give us plenty of time for that, which is why this is a reasonably good idea."

"How do you think that Father feels about Han?"

"You should ask him yourself if you're concerned about it."

"I don't know. I feel..." she trailed off, shaking her head. "Never mind."

"You shouldn't ignore your feelings. You're much more in tune with the Force than you probably realize."

She sighed, and worked to complete the thought she'd cut off. "I feel like ...I don't WANT to feel like I want his approval, yet I do. It's very confusing."

Luke looked at her hard. There was more, but either she wasn't quite able to put words to it, or whatever it was hadn't quite revealed itself to her. He decided that it wasn't worth pushing her further, as she didn't have the training to pull more information out of, well, thin air. "If it will make you feel better I can ask, but I think it would be better for both of you if you were to ask him yourself."

She was about to answer him with some biting comment, when Han walked in from outside. "We're almost ready to go. What are you two talking about?"

"The merits of this trip," Leia answered. "Where are Chewie and Lando?"

"Wrapping up everything here. They should be here in a couple of minutes. I just hope the new sensor array holds, its been giving us all kinds of trouble. Lando even lost his favorite shirt to it."

"Hobbie was in the hanger when it happened, I assumed he was fine consider how hard he was laughing when he was telling the story."

"I bet, never knew that synthsilk could go up that fast," Han said.

"That is because you don't know clothing," Leia said dryly.

"I know the important parts about clothing," Han said.

"And that would be?"

"How to get you out of yours," Han said with a smirk.

"Oh really?" she asked not seeing the smirk appear on her brother's face.

"I've had some success in the endeavor," Han replied.

"Only because I've been accommodating," Leia said sweetly.

"A fact I appreciate. I'm going to the cockpit lest this gets into areas that Luke REALLY doesn't want to hear,"

"Wow, I have been a good influence on you."

Han winked at her and left.

"I'm glad you and Han have come to an agreement on how you feel about each other," Luke said.

"It makes things easier, that is for sure. He really has stepped up and been a comfort through all of this."

"Good. Go get settled and we can talk once we are away," he said and hugged her.

"Ok."

* * *

* * *

* * *

"Ok…we've got fourteen days before life gets interesting," Han said coming back to the common area, then taking in the scene before him added, "Whoa, déjà vu!"

Chewie and the droids were at the game table only instead of Luke with a lightsaber, Leia had Luke's doing the same exercise Obi-Wan had Luke do all those years before. Hard to believe it really had only been a little over four. It wasn't long that the target drone got through Leia's defense.

"If you want to stay warm tonight flyboy, you WON'T laugh," Leia said with severity.

"I'm not saying anything!"

"Good idea, Han," Luke said with a small smirk. "Stretch out with your feelings, Leia. Let the Force guide you."

"You make it sound like it controls you," Leia said.

"It does to an extent, but it also obeys you. It's hard to describe how it feels. In the meantime I think I might have something to help you focus," Luke said, getting up.

"Here it comes," Han said.

"Here what comes?" Leia asked.

"You'll see, you won't like it, but you'll see," Han said.

"I don't think I like it when you are cryptic," Leia responded as Luke returned with a helmet with the blast shield down and put it on her head.

"I'm starting to think you're making up for lost time in teasing your sister, brother dear," she said.

"I told you, you wouldn't like it," Han said.

"I think that is quite enough out of you," she said.

"Trust me, Obi-Wan did this to me when I first started training, it helps," Luke said.

"I don't know about this, how can I do this if I can't even see?"

"Your eyes are a distraction, the information they provide blinds the senses you are trying to develop," Luke said.

"I'll try," Leia said.

"Do or do not, there is no try," Luke said.

"Right…let's do this," Leia said and Luke activated the remote.

"Now remember, stretch out with your feelings. The Force is everywhere, ready to aid you," he released the remote as he was talking, and it silently maneuvered. "Calm your thoughts and let the Force flow through you. Use the breathing exercise I taught you."

Luke nodded as his sister's breathing slowed, the remote started firing its stunner, and Leia intersected each blast deftly and with confidence.

"See? You can do it. Now describe what you felt," Luke instructed.

"It was…it was like I could see all the possible attacks the drone could have done. At first it was confusing, then each attack crystallized and my hands moved the blade into a perfect blocking position before I even really knew I needed to move, of course if I'd waited that long I'd have been hit. It was incredible."

"That is but a small taste of what it is like to be a fully trained Jedi."

"It's almost intoxicating," she said.

"Yes it is. It's a wonderful feeling, but you must be careful about reaching for it when you are angry or frightened, those emotions enhance that feeling and the raw power you have to do things, but there is a price, a steep one that Father knows better than either one of us."

"And he gave it up for you."

"For us, yes, but that isn't the whole of it. I think he had been wanting to turn away from the darkness for sometime. I was just able to give him something solid to grab on to."

"I see."

"You are starting to, but you don't really comprehend, not yet. However you are making excellent progress," Luke said.

"If you say so, but I feel like I'm NEVER going understand it all," Leia said, sitting down in a meditation pose.

"You won't ever understand it all. I don't understand it all. Obi-Wan didn't understand it all, neither did Master Yoda. As long as you draw breath, there will always be more to learn."

"You aren't being very comforting," she said.

"It's not my job to be comforting. My job is to help you start exploring the Force, and prepare you for the duties as a Jedi."

* * *

* * *

* * *

Leia had never been as exhausted in her life as she was right now, and her loving, caring, would-do-anything-for-her brother was lamenting that there wasn't space on the Falcon for a proper run. As it was he had had her doing thirty laps in the morning, before breakfast, followed by five cool down laps, she didn't want to think about what he would consider a "proper" run.

On TOP of that he also had her using the Force to open the hatches she had to go through, The first days of this had been a disaster, but she had managed to figure out how to do it, and it WAS getting easier and if the first few days she didn't have the energy to do more than talk with Han at night, by the fifth day out from the fleet she found she started feeling more adventurous.

Beyond nighttime activities, she had found to HER pleasant surprise that Han had not only been understanding, but was actively supportive. She was grateful for that, also his interest in what she was learning. He never bothered her or Luke when he was actively teaching her, but at night in their cabin—and when did she start thinking of it as that—he would ask her questions about what she had learned and seemed genuinely interested in what she was telling him, in spite of never being able to experience it himself.

So their days fell into a routine, during the day, Han, Lando and Chewie would do the minor repairs that the ship always seemed to require while she and Luke ran through the ship, he talking the whole time and NOT being out of breath, she listening and gasping for every lungful of air she could get starting about a quarter of the way through their run.

He had taught her early how to use the Force to fight fatigue and while it helped a little, it was obvious she had a ways to go to reach Luke's level of mastery. Still it was nice to be able to feel twice as refreshed from sitting half the time she would otherwise need.

"I hate to have to bring this up again, but I am concerned about it. Our father fell to the dark side. What if we succumb also?" she asked during one of their breaks.

"It is good to be concerned about it. As long as you are thinking about the possibility that you might become a monster you can take steps to prevent it," Luke replied.

"I suppose, but what if it sneaks up on you?" Leia asked.

"What do you mean?" Luke asked.

"What if, in the process of helping people I start drawing on the Dark Side, in other words, just HOW do you know you AREN'T using the Dark Side of the Force?"

"I asked Master Yoda that once and he said that I would know, when I was calm and at peace. While this is true, I think I can answer the question a little easier. If you are not acting out of rage or panic you will be fine," Luke said.

"Right, anger and fear lead to the Dark Side."

"That is a simplistic statement of the reality, and one that the old order embraced a little to closely."

"Really?"

"Yes, if Jedi were truly passionless beings we'd just sit in the Temple all our lives contemplating either our navals or the Force." Luke said and smiled when she chuckled. "Bottom line both would be as productive. Yet Jedi are called to service."

"And if we did purge all emotion we wouldn't feel the need to act, yet every story of the Jedi I've ever heard talk about them being driven to action."

"Yes, indeed I think anger and fear are paramount to being a Jedi. The DIFFERENCE is in the use of the emotion."

"I'm not sure I follow that."

"Ok…what pushed you into becoming involved in the Rebellion?"

"Anger, anger at what the Empire was doing, it was wrong and I HAD to stop it."

"Ok, now when you first felt that anger did you just grab a blaster and start shooting stormtroopers?"

"Of course not, that would be suicidal."

"That is a small example of thinking like a Jedi. Passion drives us to action, but our actions are not ruled by our passion. In the end I think the Code is going to have to be rewritten."

"The Code?"

"Yes, the Jedi Code. I haven't taught it to you due to the fact that it will be changing in all likelihood, but I suppose telling it to you wouldn't do you a disservice either."

"Ok."

"The code is as follows: _there is no emotion there is peace, there is no ignorance, there is knowledge, there is no passion , there is serenity, there is no chaos, there is harmony, there is no death, there is the Force._ That mantra is what is known as the Jedi Code. I think we can do a better job of capturing what it truly is to be a Jedi though. Now back to avoiding the Dark Side, while it is perfectly acceptable to let your emotions drive you to action, at no time should they blind you. This is important when you have only partial information."

"Sounds like that second line is staying in, then," Leia said with a smirk.

"Well I never said I was doing away with all of it."

"True enough." Leia said and got up to continue the seemingly endless running.

The next morning, she woke up slightly earlier than she normally did, but not overly so to bother going back to sleep. She went to the galley and started cooking breakfast expecting that to rouse the boys from their slumber. She cracked the first eggs onto the skillet and then the smell of the cooking eggs hit her nose. She felt the sensation travel down to her stomach and instead of the expected rumble of hunger, she felt the sudden, unpleasant lurch of nausea. She swallowed and it seemed to pass, she turned back to her cooking and caught another whiff of the eggs. This time her stomach's protest was much more violent and she made a mad dash for the head.


End file.
